LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

Theological   Seminary, 

PRINCETON,    N.  J. 

BL  240  .B88  1873 
(  Burr,  E.  F.  1818-1907. 
I  Pater  mundi,  or,  Doctrine  o} 
evolution 

kj\j\jg\j) 


PATER   MUNDI; 


DOCTRINE   OF   EVOLUTION. 

BEING   IN    SUBSTANCE 

LECTURES    DELIVERED   IN   VARIOUS    COL- 
LEGES   AND   THEOLOGICAL   SEMI- 
NARIES. 

BY 

REV.  E.  F.  BURR,  D.  D., 

AUTHOR    OF    "ECCE   CCELUM  "    AND    "  AD    FIDEM,"    AND    LECTURER   ON   THE 
SCIENTIFIC   EVIDENCES   OF   RELIGION,    IN   AMHERST   COLLEGE. 

El  fxr)  KaTeo-irapfxevoi  $\aa.v  ol  t.olovtoi  Xoyoi  eV  rois  iracriv,  &s  tiroi 
elwfTv,  avOpwirois,  ovSev  &v  eSet  twv  iirafxvuovTdov  \6yct>v,  a>s  clal  8eo\, 
vvv  de  avdyKt].  —  Plato. 

If  a  man  sets  out  to  write  a  book,  let  him  put  down  only  what 
he  knows  —  I  have  guesses  enough  of  my  own.  —  Goethe. 


SECOND  SERIES. 


BOSTON: 
NOYES,  HOLMES  AND  COMPANY, 

No.  117  Washington  Street. 
1873. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1873,  by 

Noyes,  Holmes  and  Company, 
in  the  Office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


RIVERSIDE,    CAMBRIDGE: 

STEREOTYPED     AND     PRINTED     BY 

H.    0.    HOUGHTON    AND   COMPANY. 


TO  THE 

HEAVENLY    FATHER, 

TO   WHOM    WE    DEDICATE   OUR   SABBATHS,    OUR   SANCTUARIES, 

AND    OURSELVES, 

£i)ese  Volumes, 

IN    ILLUSTRATION    OF   HIS   BEING   AND   GREATNESS, 
ARE  REVERENTLY  INSCRIBED. 


PREFACE. 


When  a  child  says,  //  broke  itself,  we  are  not 
much  astonished.  Such  philosophy  might  be  ex- 
pected from  childhood.  But  what  if  the  same 
philosophy  comes  to  us  from  the  lips  and  pens  of 
full  grown  men  who  have  taken  their  degrees  in 


science 


In  the  course  of  progressive  development  we 
have  come  to  —  what  ?  Look  about  you.  Here 
is  an  idol,  with  a  crowd  of  half-naked  people  danc- 
ing about  it  like  madmen.  There  is  a  slave  till- 
ing the  field  with  a  sharpened  stick.  And,  sure 
as  you  live,  yonder  is  old  Democritus  —  I  should 
know  him  among  a  thousand  —  standing  at  the 
mouth  of  his  burrow ;  unclothed  and  uncombed 
and  unwashed  ;  a  silly  leer  on  his  face  ;  whom  all 
the  people  say  to  be  mad,  and  who  is  so  mad  as  to 
say  that  God  and  virtue  are  mere  names,  as  he 
writes  in  the  sand  with  dirtiest  of  fingers  the  sin- 
gle word,  "Arofioif     Why,  this  is  not  Christendom 


vi  PREFACE. 

in  the  last  of  the  nineteenth  century !  It  is 
heathen  Greece,  of  some  thousands  of  years  ago  — 
Greece  without  the  useful  arts,  without  science, 
without  morals  —  at  least  Greece  Li  its  very 
childhood  as  to  these  chief  things.  And  the 
child  says,  The  universe  made  itself.  Such  is 
Progress. 

If  the  author  of  this  volume  could  enter  again 
its  locked  forms  he  would  feel  disposed  to  add  — 

i.  A  few  striking  examples  of  organisms,  at  first 
set  down  by  experts  as  being  clearly  of  the  same 
species,  but  afterward  found  so  broadly  unlike  in 
their  more  interior  structure  as  to  be  unanimously 
assigned  to  distinct  species,  and  sometimes  even 
to  distinct  genera. 

2.  Some  account  of  that  very  instructive  civil 
war  now  raging  among  evolutionists,  in  which 
scarcely  a  single  principle  important  to  their 
scheme  but  is  loudly  called  in  question  by  some 
first-class  authority  among  themselves. 

3.  A  chapter  showing  in  detail  how  the  sort  of 
argument  used  in  favor  of  evolution  might  be  used, 
with  equal  or  greater  plausibility,  in  favor  of  the 
heathen  doctrine  of  metempsychosis ;  or  some  other 
doctrine  which  nobody  now  thinks  of  believing. 

As  it  is,  perhaps  this  book  will  serve  a  purpose 


PREFACE.  vjj 

till  a  better  comes  to  us  from  the  pen  of  M.  Thiers. 
"  I  must  give  a  pendant  to  my  book  on  property. 
I  am  preparing  it  —  a  work  against  materialism. 
There  is  no  great  distance  between  the  enemies 
of  God  and  the  foes  of  those  who  possess  anything. 
Materialism    is  a  folly  as  well  as  a  peril.     I  am 
anxious  to  confound  it  in  the  name  of  science  and 
good  sense.     For  twelve  years  I  have   been  en- 
gaged in  this  work  ;  during  all  that  time  I  have 
been  demanding  from  botany  and  chemistry  and 
natural  history  their  arguments  against  the  detest- 
able doctrine  that  leads  honest  people  astray." 
Lymf,   Conn. 


CONTENTS. 


♦ 

I.  DOCTRINE  OF  EVOLUTION. 

PAGB 

i.    Nature 9 

2.  Religious  Bearings IO 

3.  Present  Attitude H 

4.  Duel  with  Theism 19 

II.  AS   EXPLAINING  NATURE. 

1.  A  Testimony 2S 

2.  General  Estimate 26 

3.  An  Objection 28 

4.  Not  to  be  Accepted  if  Adequate  ....  30 

5.  Cannot  be  Shown  Adequate        ....  31 

6.  Is  not  Adequate 37 

7.  Examples  of  Evolution 37 

III.     CHIEF  DEFENSE. 

1.  Alleged  Examples 59 

2.  Harmonies  with  Nature      .  60 

3.  Course  of  Scientific  Experience    ....  63 

IV.    CONFLICT   WITH   ONTOLOGY. 

1.  An  Illustration 83 

2.  Combination  no  Creator 91 


X  CONTENTS. 


PAGB 


3.  No  Equal  from  Equai 9^ 

4.  No  Like  from  Like 97 


V.     CONFLICT   WITH   GEOLOGY. 

1.  Each  Age  its  own  Species    ....  105 

2.  No  Perpendicular  Chains I09 

3.  No  Horizontal  Chains II2 

4.  Special  Chasms IXc 

5.  Objection I27 

VI.     CONFLICT    WITH    THE    SCIENCE   OF    PROBA- 
BILITIES. 

1.  Doctrine  of  Chances        ...  T-^n 

1o9 

2.  Broken  Chains         ...  1AT 

3.  Spontaneous  Minims I4g 

4.  Disjecta  Membra Xc2 

5.  OVERLAPPINGS   OF   SPECIES Tty 


6.  Improprieties  of  Structure ^1 

7.  Organic  Limits I70 

8.  Few  Types I75 

9-  Spiritual  Properties !g2 

VII.     CONFLICT   WITH   SOLAR   ASTRONOMY. 
Nebular  F 
2.    Estimated 


1.    Nebular  Hypothesis I97 


199 

3.  Central  Heat 203 

4-  Chemical  Constitution 2o$ 

5.  Mechanical  Relations 209 

6.  Rotations 2l6 

7.  Revolutions 22- 

8.  What  Next? 2_9 


CONTENTS.  xi 


VIII.  CONFLICT   WITH   STELLAR   ASTRONOMY. 

PAGE 

i.  A  Principle 246 

2.  Visible  Systems 248 

3.  No  Huge  Centers 250 

4.  Without  Certain  Graduations      ....  252 

5.  Various  Planes 256 

6.  Eccentric  Orbits 258 

7.  Different  Chemistries 262 

8.  A  Dream 269 

IX.  CONFLICT   WITH   NEBULAR  ASTRONOMY. 

1.  Nebula •  .  267 

2.  Examined  by  Spectroscope 269 

3.  Shown  to  be  Fire  Mists? 270 

4.  Shown  not  to  be 273 

5.  What  if  they  are? 285 

6.  The  Whole  Field 291 

7.  A  Voyage 297 

8.  The  Whence  and  the  Whither     ....  300 


I. 
DOCTRINE    OF   EVOLUTION. 

Anaximenes  omnes  rerum  causas  infinito  aeri  dedit. 

St.  Austin. 

Sed  quibus  ille  modis  conjectus  materiae 
Fundarit  coelum,  ac  terram,  pontique  profunda, 
Solis,  lunae  cursus,  ex  ordine  ponam 
Nam  certe  neque  consilio  primordia  rerum 
Ordine  se  quaeque  atque  sagaci  mente  locarunt. 

Lucretius. 


I.  Doctrine   of    Evolution. 

i.    NATURE 9 

2.    RELIGIOUS  BEARINGS 10 

3-    PRESENT  ATTITUDE 14 

4.    DUEL  WITH  THEISM 19 


FIRST   LECTURE. 


DOCTRINE   OF    EVOLUTION. 

/T^HE  Doctrine  of  Evolution  —  known  also  as 
■*■  the  Law  Scheme,  and  the  Development  Hy- 
pothesis —  in  its  ripest  form,  is  that  all  things  we 
perceive,  including  what  are  called  spiritual  phe- 
nomena, have  come  from  the  simplest  beginnings, 
solely  by  means  of  such  forces  and  laws  as  be- 
long to  matter.  Suppose  all  matter  expanded  into 
one  great  cloud  of  atoms.  Then  these  atoms,  by 
virtue  of  properties  inherent  in  themselves,  would, 
in  course  of  time,  come  together  into  worlds,  into 
astronomic  systems,  into  the  vegetable  and  animal 
kingdoms,  and  even  into  that  great  spiritual  realm 
which  is  the  chief  wonder  and  glory  of  Nature. 

I  propose  to  discuss  these  views  at  length,  be- 
cause they  seem  to  me  the  great,  and  indeed  the 
only  possible,  assailant  of  Theism  from  the  side  of 
science. 

It  is  true  that  not  a  few  persons  of  great  con- 


10  FIRST  LECTURE. 

sideration  are  disposed  to  think  that  the  Doctrine 
of  Evolution  does  not  really  assail  our  Theism  at 
all.  They  say  it  is  perfectly  consistent  with  the 
existence  of  God,  and  even  with  His  being  the 
author  of  Nature.  Supposing  the  nature  of  mat- 
ter to  be  the  proximate  source  of  all  natural  struc- 
tures and  organisms,  with  their  phenomena,  the 
matter  itself  may  have  come  directly  from  the  hand 
of  a  Creator. 

This  must  be  admitted.  A  positive  proof  of  the 
Law  Scheme  would  do  just  nothing  toward  disprov- 
ing a  creating  God.  At  the  same  time  it  is  true 
that  this  scheme  is  extremely  hostile  to  Theism 
and  evangelical  religion  generally.  One  might  con- 
jecture as  much  from  its  history.  It  was  started 
by  old  Greek  atheists — Anaximander,  Anaxag- 
oras,  Democritus,  and  Epicurus  —  in  the  interest 
of  atheism.  It  was  revived  and  enlarged  in  the 
interest  of  atheism,  at  the  first  of  this  century, 
by  French  atheists  —  Lamarck,  St  Hilaire,  St. 
Vincent,  and  La  Place.  And,  up  to  the  present 
time,  most  of  its  leading  supporters,  the  men  who 
have  pressed  it  with  most  zeal  and  intelligence, 
have  been  widely  astray  in  point  of  religious  belief. 
They  have  been  materialists,  rationalists,  free- 
religionists.  They  have  been  deists,  atheists,  skep- 


RELIGIOUS  BEARINGS.  I  I 

tics.  They  have  been  active  foes  of  churches,  min- 
istries, Bibles.  To  a  man,  such  gross  errorists  are 
now  found  catching  at  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution 
with  great  eagerness.  They  scarcely  need  to  be 
argued  with  in  its  behalf.  They  are  ready  to  take 
it  on  sight.  At  once  it  becomes  their  pet  philoso- 
phy. They  dote  on  it  ;  they  put  it  forward  on  all 
occasions  ;  they  loudly  advertise  us  that  it  is  des- 
ined  to  be,  at  no  distant  day,  the  destruction  of 
what  they  are  pleased  to  call  superstition  —  mean- 
ing Supernaturalism  and  the  Christian  Religion. 
Especially  true  is  this  of  the  "  fast  and  furious" 
unbelievers  in  Continental  Europe.  These  men 
tell  us  with  shining  faces  that  they  already  see  the 
beginning  of  the  end  ;  that  all  the  sacred  tradi- 
tions are  crumbling  beneath  the  ponderous  battle- 
axe  of  the  new  scientific  giant.  "  God  is  dead," 
say  they,  "  or  if  not  yet  dead,  He  is  dying."  And 
they  blow  a  trumpet  at  the  news.  Whatever 
doubt  others  may  have  as  to  the  real  bearing  of 
the  Doctrine  of  Evolution,  these  men  seem  to  have 
no  doubt  at  all.  While  some  Christian  people 
look  on  the  speculation  with  favor,  and  still  more 
do  not  as  yet  see  their  way  clear  to  reject  it  (per- 
haps lest  they  should  repeat  the  story  of  Galileo 
and  his  persecutors),  these  men  feel,  and  are  glad 


12  FIRST  LECTURE. 

to  feel,  that,  both  in  its  practical  influence  and  in 
its  logical  sequences,  it  is  quite  inconsistent  with 
a  reasonable  faith  in  the  Bible  and  in  God. 

And  I  think  their  view  is  correct.  The  Law 
Scheme  crowds  God  away  till  His  great  orb  loses 
all  sensible  diameter.  It  contradicts  that  whole 
idea  of  a  personal  Divine  interference  in  the 
affairs  of  the  world,  of  which  our  Scriptures  are 
full.  Inspiration  and  miracles  and  regenerations 
and  even  prayers  are  scornfully  cast  out  by  it,  as, 
at  best,  mere  figures  of  speech.  As  to  the  Bible 
account  of  the  origin  of  man,  of  the  stage  of  "ad- 
vancement at  which  he  appeared,  of  his  fall,  and 
of  the  way  in  which  he  is  to  be  restored  and  saved 
—  this  scheme  strikes  it  squarely  in  the  face. 
Let  men  say  what  they  will,  evolutionism  means 
materialism  ;  and  so  denies  to  man  moral  charac- 
ter, responsibility,  personal  immortality  ;  and  so 
denies  the  chief  use  of  having  a  God.  "  And  thus," 
says  Hugh  Miller,  "  though  the  development  the- 
ory be  not  atheistic,  it  is  at  least  practically  tanta- 
mount to  atheism.  For,  if  man  be  a  dying  crea- 
ture, restricted  in  his  existence  to  the  present 
scene  of  things,  what  does  it  really  matter  to  him, 
for  any  one  moral  purpose,  whether  there  be  a 
God  or  no  ?     If  in   reality  en   the  same  religious 


RELIGIOUS  BEARINGS.  1 3 

level  with  the  dog,  wolf,  and  fox,  that  are  by  na- 
ture atheists  —  a  nature  most  properly  coupled 
with  irresponsibility  —  to  what  one  practical  pur- 
pose should  he  know  or  believe  in  a  God  whom 
he,  as  certainly  as  they,  is  never  to  meet  as  his 
Judge  ;  or  why  should  he  square  his  conduct  by 
the  requirements  of  the  moral  code,  further  than 
a  low  and  convenient  expediency  may  chance  to 
demand  ?  " 

Evolutionism  also  denies  that  great  class  of 
Theistic  evidences  drawn  from  the  admirable  nat- 
ural objects  of  the  universe,  and  on  which  faith  in 
all  ages  has  so  largely  rested.  Indeed,  it  is  not 
too  much  to  say  that  in  effect  it  suppresses  all 
Theistic  evidences  :  for,  after  I  have  admitted  that 
the  properties  of  matter  itself  will  account  for  all 
we  find  within  the  bounds  of  Nature,  what  shall 
hinder  a  philosopher  from  saying,  "  These  atoms 
are  just  as  easily  conceived  of  as  being  eternal  as 
is  an  Infinite  Mind.  The  atoms  we  know  to  ex- 
ist, the  Mind  we  do  not  know  to  exist.  In  this 
case  it  is  unphilosophical  to  assume  the  eternity 
of  the  unknown,  rather  than  of  the  known,  as 
an  explanation  of  the  facts.  One  assumption  is 
simpler  than  two  assumptions."  No  satisfactory 
answer  can  be  made  to  this.     Accordingly,  those 


14  FIRST  LECTURE. 

scholars  who  hold  to  eternal  atomic  forces  and 
laws  which  are  able  of  themselves  to  build  up  all 
the  various  natural  structures,  are  universally  athe- 
ists. Founded  by  atheism,  claimed  by  atheism, 
supported  by  atheism,  used  exclusively  in  the  in- 
terest of  atheism,  suppressing  without  mercy  every 
jot  of  evidence  for  the  Divine  existence,  and  so 
making  a  positive  rational  faith  in  God  wholly 
impossible,  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution  may  well 
be  set  down  as  not  only  a  foe  to  Theism,  but  a  foe 
of  the  most  thorough-going  sort. 

And  of  late  it  has  become  a  very  aggressive  and 
influential  foe.  Not  so  influential,  indeed,  as  some 
of  its  friends  are  apt  to  claim.  Listening  to  these, 
one  might  suppose  that  the  entire  scientific  world 
had  come  over  to  their  way  of  thinking  —  that 
the  Development  Hypothesis  is  as  much  accepted 
science  as  is  the  law  of  gravitation  —  that  none 
but  theologians  and  the  crudest  sciolists  now 
think  of  calling  it  in  question.  And  has  the  age 
really  so  swept  by  us  ?  Have  matters  actually 
come  to  that  pass  that  a  single  curt  and  casual 
word  of  some  young  Comtist  is  sufficient  to  thrust 
into  a  corner  that  old  supernaturalism  which 
has  reigned  supreme  through  so  many  ages  ?  Is 
this  hoary  doctrine  now  only  worthy  of  passing 


PRESENT  ATTITUDE.  1 5 

mention  as  a  thing  which  every  well-informed  man 
knows  to  have  been  thoroughly  exploded  some  time 
since  ;  and  against  which  to  offer  a  serious  argu- 
ment at  this  late  day  almost  calls  for  an  apology  ? 
Of  course  all  this  is  abundantly  preposterous. 
It  would  be  ridiculous  if  it  were  not  so  criminal. 
It  belongs  to  that  well-known  policy  which  tries  to 
gain  a  battle  by  assuming  it  to  be  already  gained. 
The  battle  is  not  gained  —  very  far  from  it  — 
whether  we  regard  evidences  or  suffrages.  Great 
scholars,  and  many  of  them,  and  most  of  them,  still 
bow  toward  the  throne  of  an  Almighty  Creator,  and 
toward  the  Cross  of  His  Son,  Jesus  Christ.  There 
is,  perhaps,  no  country  where  scholarship  is  so  apt 
to  be  unbelieving  as  Germany ;  and  it  has  even 
been  fashionable  among  evolutionists  to  claim,  in 
a  vague  way,  that  all  the  German  science  and  cul- 
ture are  in  favor  of  the  new  views  ;  but  an  actual 
search  by  one  of  our  most  eminent  professors 
among  German  publications  on  the  Development 
Hypothesis,  discloses  the  fact  that,  out  of  some 
thirty  works  issued  within  a  certain  time,  more 
than  twenty  were  against  the  hypothesis,  and 
these  as  much  superior  to  the  others  in  ability 
and  in  the  repute  of  their  authors,  as  they  were  in 
number. 


1 6  FIRST  LECTURE. 

Still,  it  is  true  that  the  hypothesis  has  come  to 
have  a  very  large  following  and  influence,  and 
threatens  to  have  more.  It  has  taken  to  itself  the 
dress,  the  airs,  the  language,  and  the  ideas  of  our 
best  science.  It  speaks  with  the  voices,  writes 
with  the  pens,  and  persuades  with  the  reputations 
of  well-known  scientific  men  to  whose  entire 
scholarly  life  and  labors  it  is  evidently  giving 
shape.  So  it  has  managed  to  come  to  great  notice 
and  influence.  It  dwells  unmolested  under  the/ 
eaves  of  Christian  colleges.  It  sits  honorably  in 
professors'  chairs.  It  is  rewarded  for  its  labors  by 
Commencement  honors.  It  is  even  invited  to  ex- 
pound itself  in  our  Theological  Seminaries  ;  an< 
to  feed  itself  to  the  young  men  who  are  about  t( 
feed  the  churches.  It  no  longer  confines  itself  to 
obscure  treatises  in  the  dialect  of  the  learned,  but 
tries  to  popularize  itself  to  the  utmost.  It  stands 
forth  on  the  bemas  of  popular  lecture-rooms.  It 
drives  the  pens  of  widely  read  authors.  It  solicits 
in  quarterlies,  monthlies,  weeklies,  dailies.  It 
affects  the  language  of  the  common  people,  and 
even  aspires  to  deal  in  the  speech  of  the  nursery. 
It  has  its  tracts  and  its  catechisms,  and  even  its 
pictures.  It  has  its  Apostles'  Creed,  its  West- 
minster Shorter,  and  even  its  "  Can  you  tell  me, 


PRESENT  ATTITUDE.  \y 

child,  who  made  you  ? "  And  the  people  and  the 
youth  are,  to  an  alarming  extent,  being  snared  by 
such  means.  You  can  hear  this  new  gospel  stam- 
mering by  the  country  roadside,  in  the  village 
grocery,  in  the  blacksmith's  shop  of  the  hamlet, 
and  in  the  Sabbathless  cabins  of  the  remote  school 
district  among  the  hills.  And  if  the  evil  is  not 
hourly  creeping  up,  like  the  plague  of  frogs,  into 
all  our  "  houses  and  bed-chambers  and  kneading- 
troughs,"  it  is  not  the  fault  of  many  religious  news- 
papers and  Christian  book-publishers  —  the  latter 
publishing  freely,  and  probably  blindly,  popular 
works  all  subtly  steeped  in  the  new  views  ;  and 
the  others  as  blindly  praising  these  books  and  their 
authors  in  thousands  of  Christian  families  all  over 
the  land,  and  even  inviting  these  authors  across  the 
seas  to  diffuse  their  views  everywhere  as  itinerant 
lecturers  —  sounding  a  trumpet  before  them  to  be- 
speak attention.  And  why  not — seeing  that  not 
a  few  devout  and  eminent  theists  and  Christians, 
looking  merely  at  the  unquestionable  fact  that 
organization  by  atomic  forces  and  laws  is  perfectly 
consistent  with  the  existence  of  God,  and  over- 
looking the  equally  unquestionable  fact  that  it  is 
perfectly  inconsistent  with  all  evidence  of  His 
existence  (especially  with  that  evidence  from  the 


1 8  FIRST  LECTURE. 

things  that  are  made,  which  the  Christian  Scrip- 
tures say  leaves  even  the  heathen  without  excuse), 
have  been  led  to  tolerate  and  sometimes  to  favor 
so  much  of  the  Law  Scheme  as  philosophically 
draws  after  it  all  the  rest. 

Altogether  this  scheme  has  come  to  great  estate. 
We  find  it  almost  everywhere,  doubting,  insin- 
uating, arguing,  dogmatizing,  according  to  cir- 
cumstances ;  sometimes  directly  affirming  atheism, 
more  often  quite  silent  about  it,  sometimes  stoutly 
and  honestly  denying  it ;  but  always,  I  cannot  but 
feel,  practically  implying  it  among  such  beings  as 
make  up  mankind.  No  observant  theist  can  fail  to 
see  that  it  is  the  great  intellectual  adversary  of 
religion  in  our  times.  The  rational  battle  for  re- 
ligion is  no  longer  on  the  metaphysical  field  :  it 
is  now  almost  wholly  on  the  field  of  the  natural 
sciences ;  and  the  champion  of  unbelief  on  that 
field  is  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution.  And  a  formi- 
dable champion  it  is.  As  M.  Guizot  says,  "  All 
those  who  are  still  Christians  and  believers  in  a 
supernatural  life,  must  become  more  united  against 
the  invasion  of  materialistic  doctrines."  There  is 
no  other  speculation  from  which  so  much  is  to  be 
apprehended  ;  none  equally  seductive  and  dan- 
gerous in  all  the  speculating  past.     And  far  more 


DUEL    WITH   THEISM.  1 9 

emphatically  now  than  when  the  words  were 
written,  more  than  twenty  years  ago,  by  one  of  the 
most  eminent  of  modern  scientists,  can  it  be  said  : 
"  The  evangelistic  churches  cannot,  in  consistency 
with  their  character,  or  with  due  regard  to  the 
interests  of  their  people,  slight  or  overlook  a  form 
of  error  at  once  exceedingly  plausible  and  consum- 
mately dangerous,  and  which  is  telling  so  widely 
on  society,  that  one  can  scarcely  travel  by  railway 
or  in  a  steamboat,  or  encounter  a  group  of  intelli- 
gent mechanics,  without  finding  decided  trace  of 
its  ravages." 

The  Doctrine  of  Evolution  deserves  much  atten- 
tion—  especially  since  it  is  not  merely  the  only 
actual,  but  also  the  only  possible,  competitor  of 
Theism  as  an  explanation  of  Nature.  We'  cannot 
conceive  of  any  other  way  of  accounting  for  Nature 
that  has  any  plausibility  about  it  to  a  thinking  and 
enlightened  age.  If  we  may  assume  that  the  world 
will  hold  fast  to  at  least  some  respectable  fraction 
of  its  present  intelligence,  we  may  assume  that  it 
will  never  again  entertain  the  idea,  either  of  a 
creation  by  chance  or  of  the  eternity  of  existing 
organic  individuals  or  races.  It  will  always  be  the 
Law  Scheme  or  Theism.  It  always  must  be.  There 
is  no  tertium  quid.     The  moment  on'e  gives  up  the 


20  FIRST  LECTURE. 

idea  of  creating  law,  he  will,  of  necessity,  fill  the 
vacancy  with  the  idea  of  a  creating  God.     The 
Law  Scheme  is  the  John  o'  Groat's  house  to  the 
atheist.     It  is  quite  the  last  ground  on  which  he 
can  stand.     Dislodged  from  this,  there  is  nothing 
beyond  into   which    he  can   step  forth    but    that 
illimitable  Theism  which  washes  and   encroaches 
at  his  very  feet.     God  may  be,  if  the  Law  Scheme 
is  true ;  but  God  must  be,  if  the  Scheme  is  false. 
While  establishing  it  would  prove  absolutely  noth- 
ing against  Theism,  refuting  it  establishes  The- 
ism in  the  strongest  manner.     Hence  every  blow 
on    this    one    enemy   is    really   a  direct   blow   in 
behalf  of    God  ;    all    sound    objections    that   can 
be  stated   against  the   one  are   so  many  positive 
proofs  of  the  other.     And  they  are  proofs  that  can 
never  become  obsolete.     They  meet  not  only  all 
present  atheism,  but  all  atheism  that  can  appear 
from  this  time  forward.     Of  course,  such  universal 
and    immortal    arguments    are    invaluable.     One 
might  naturally  be  somewhat  reluctant  to  spend 
much  time  and  strength  on  an  argument  that  may 
be  made  useless  at  any  moment  by  the  shifting 
course  of  speculation.     But  such  is  not  the  argu- 
ment  against   the    Development  Hypothesis.     It 
cannot  be  superseded.     The  age  can  never  get 


DUEL    WITH  THEISM.  21 

beyond  it.  And  one  can  afford  to  expend  himself 
liberally  in  the  effort  to  remove  what  is  not  merely 
the  most  noted,  plausible,  influential,  and  violent 
enemy  of  Theism  in  our  day,  but  what  is  its  only 
possible  enemy  for  all  ages  to  come. 

I  propose  to  make  this  large  outlay.  And  I 
ask  particular  attention  to  the  fact  that,  in  making 
it,  I  do  not  suspend  for  a  moment  the  progress  of 
that  positive  Theistic  argument  on  which  I  have 
already  considerably  advanced.  The  case  being 
that  of  a  duel,  in  which  the  Law  Scheme  and  The- 
ism are  the  contending  parties,  you  are  to  count 
all  things  which  I  may  be  able  to  show  as  mak- 
ing fatally  against  the  one,  as  being  so  many  posi- 
tive proofs  of  the  other. 


II. 
AS    EXPLAINING   NATURE. 

Zuxx  Sr)  iravTO.  Ovyjto.  /cat  cfyvrd,  ocra  r  inl  yrjs  ck  aTrep/xd- 
ruiv  KOt.  ptt,Cov  cfiveTai  koX  ocra  aipv^a  kv  yrj  £vvio~Ta.TCU—— 
fMwv  aWov  tlvo<;  7)  6euv  Syj/xiovpyovvros  <f>r]o~o/x€v  varepov 
nrNE2®AI  trpoTtpov  ovKyONTA  ;  —  P/at0. 


II.  As  Explaining  Nature. 

i.  A    TESTIMONY        . 25 

2.  GENERAL   ESTIMATE 26 

3.  AN   OBJECTION 28 

4.  NOT  TO   BE   ACCEPTED    IF   ADEQUATE         ...  3° 

5.  CANNOT   BE   SHOWN   ADEQUATE 3* 

6.  IS   NOT   ADEQUATE          :. 37 

7.  EXAMPLES   OF    EVOLUTION 3/ 


SECOND    LECTURE. 


AS    EXPLAINING   NATURE. 

HHE  Doctrine  of  Evolution,  as  actually  held, 
-■■  consists  of  three  parts  :  First,  The  Nebular 
Hypothesis,  which  undertakes  to  show  how  worlds 
and  systems  of  worlds  were  made  in  a  natural 
way  from  a  fire  mist;  Second,  The  Doctrine  of 
Spontaneous  Generation,  which  undertakes  to  show 
the  natural  origin  of  life  and  simplest  organisms  ; 
Third,  The  Doctrine  of  the  Transmutation  of  Spe- 
cies, which  undertakes  to  show  how  all  the  higher 
sorts  of  plants  and  animals  came,  by  a  series  of 
natural  changes,  from  one  or  a  few  simple  species 
spontaneously  produced. 

In  regard  to  this  last  part  of  the  Law  Scheme, 
Agassiz  has  written,  "  I  wish  to  enter  my  earnest 
protest  against  the  transmutation  theory.  It  is  my 
belief  that  naturalists  are  chasing  a  phantom,  in 
their  search  after  some  material  gradation  among 
created  beings,  by  which  the  whole  animal  king- 


26  SECOND   LECTURE 

dom  may  have  been  derived  by  successive  devel- 
opment from  a  single  germ,  or  from  a  few  germs. 
I  confess  that  there  seems  to  me  a  repulsive  pov- 
erty in  this  material  explanation,  that  is  contra- 
dicted by  the  intellectual  grandeur  of  the  universe. 
I  insist  that  this  theory  is  opposed  to  the  proc- 
esses of  Nature  as  we  have  been  able  to  apprehend 
them  ;  that  it  is  contradicted  by  the  facts  of  Em- 
bryology and  Paleontology,  the  former  showing  us 
norms  of  development  as  distinct  and  persistent 
for  each  group  as  are  the  fossil  types  of  each  pe- 
riod revealed  to  us  by  the  latter ;  and  that  the  ex- 
periments on  domesticated  animals  and  cultivated 
plants,  on  which  its  adherents  base  their  views,  are 
entirely  foreign  to  the  matter  in  hand." 

This  strong  testimony  against  a  part  of  the  Law 
Scheme,  seems  to  me  not  too  strong  to  be  borne 
against  the  whole.  The  whole  scheme,  cosmical 
and  physiological  —  deriving  worlds  in  their  or- 
derly and  balanced  arrangements  from  a  fiery  cloud 
by  such  laws  as  those  of  heat  and  gravity,  and 
gradually  peopling  these  worlds  with  the  marvels 
of  vegetable  and  animal  and  rational  life  in  the  way 
of  spontaneous  generation  and  transmutation  of 
species  —  this  entire  scheme  seems  to  me  utterly 
unscientific.     I  have  studied  it  long.     I  have  read 


GENERAL   ESTIMATE.  2J 

about  it  much,  and  thought  about  it  more.  I  have 
listened  to  the  arguments  of  its  enemies,  and  to 
the  arguments  of  its  friends  as  well.  And,  alto- 
gether, I  must  say  that,  while  fully  allowing  the 
high  scientific  character  of  some  leading  evolu- 
tionists, and  the  real  value  of  many  of  the  facts 
they  have  gathered,  and  even  many  interesting 
analogies  between  their  theory  and  fact,  my  opin- 
ion of  that  theory  is  just  as  unfavorable  from  the 
side  of  science  as  it  is  from  the  side  of  religion. 
It  is  not  science.  It  is  not  even  a  scientific 
speculation  ;  only  a  speculation  held  by  some  sci- 
entific men,  and  by  still  more  who  are  no  men  of 
science  at  all.  As  best  drawn  out  it  is  very  ingen- 
ious, very  elaborate,  very  showy,  with  not  a  few 
plausible  agreements  with  Nature  —  in  these  re- 
spects not  unlike  many  other  things  which  no- 
body believes  in  —  but  after  all  deserves  quite  as 
severe  words  as  Agassiz  and  Miller  and  Sedg- 
wick and  Brewster  and  the  younger  Herschel  and 
many  another  great  student  of  Nature  have  spoken 
against  it.  That  is  to  say,  it  is  a  dream.  It  is 
an  air-castle.  It  is  a  chain  of  guesses  and  possi- 
bilities and  suppositions,  holding  up  a  prismatic 
bubble.  It  is  the  mythology  of  science  ;  defended 
by  such  assumptions,  fancies,  analogies,  odds  and 


28  SECOND  LECTURE. 

ends  of  truth  and  error  dextrously  woven  to- 
gether, as  can  be  brought  forward  m  favor  of  the 
stories  in  our  classical  dictionaries.  Do  you  see 
yon  turreted  and  battlemented  cloud,  not  with- 
out a  certain  symmetry  and  likeness  to  real  archi- 
tecture, but  still  without  solidity  and  foundation  ? 
That  is  the  Law  Scheme :  save,  this  cloud  is  not 
only  without  foundation,  but  agaitist  foundation; 
not  only  without  dear  friends  among  the  funda- 
mental conceptions  of  reason  and  science,  but 
positively  at  war  with  them  to  an  extent  hardly 
known  in  the  case  of  any  other  speculation  that 
has  pushed  its  way  into  notoriety.  Despite  its 
notoriety,  despite  some  learned  and  scientific  fea- 
tures, despite  the  support  it  has  had  from  some 
men  of  great  scientific  attainments,  it  may  well 
be  doubted  if  ever  another  hypothesis  made  so 
great  a  figure  on  so  small  a  capital. 

If  any  think  it  hardly  possible  that  so  many 
persons  of  scientific  pursuits  should  take  up  the 
Doctrine  of  Evolution  on  very  slight  grounds,  I 
refer  them  in  explanation  to  two  things.  The 
first  is  that  original  sin  of  mankind,  the  desire  to 
have  just  as  little  of  God  in  the  universe  as  possi- 
ble ;  and  which  is  ever  saying  in  the  hearts  of 
irreligious  men,  scientific  as  well  as  other,  "  De- 


AN  OBJECTION.  29 

part  from  us,  for  we  desire  not  the  knowledge  of 
Thy  ways."  And  the  second  is  the  curious  his- 
tory of  science  and  philosophy. 

Has  empty  speculation  never  set  up  claim  to  be 
called  science,  and  had  a  very  considerable  fol- 
lowing ?  Have  learned  men  never  held  to  any 
extravagant  opinions  ?  Have  they  never  been 
obliged  to  take  back  things  which  they  have  most 
positively  asserted  and  most  zealously  fought  for  ? 
Have  not  even  the  mathematicians  sometimes 
exchanged  characters  with  the  poets,  and  been  as 
flighty  with  their  differentials  and  integrals  as  are 
the  bay-crowned  men  who  make  flight  a  profes- 
sion ?  Has  Philosophy,  so  called,  always  shown 
itself  to  be  the  same  as  Euclid  ?  Nay,  has  it  not 
often  fathered  and  mothered  such  outrageous  and 
preposterous  notions  as  to  almost  bring  its  name 
into  contempt  among  sensible  people  ?  In  short, 
is  there  not  very  much  in  the  history  of  what  are 
called  science  and  philosophy  to  give  color  to  the 
charge,  "  When  philosophers  set  out  to  be  foolish 
there  is  no  folly  equal  to  theirs  "  ?  A  very  morti- 
fying history  indeed,  although  an  autobiography  — 
about  as  mortifying  to  a  scholar  as  must  be  to  a 
Jew  that  history  which  his  nation  has  written  of 
itself  in  the  Old  Testament !    Even  the  annals  of 


30  SECOND   LECTURE, 

the  Inductive  Sciences  will  help  one  to  understand 
how  very  possible  it  is  for  very  slender  specula- 
tions to  get  audience  and  friends  and  apostles  in 
scientific  circles. 

After  looking  over  the  whole  field  of  Evolution- 
ism, it  seems  to  me  that  the  three  following  prop- 
ositions are  true  in  regard  to  it. 

I.  Even  if  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution  were  shown 
to  be  an  adequate  explanation  of  Nature,  it  should 
not  be  received  as  the  true  explanation. 

II.  //  cannot  be  shown  to  be  adequate. 

III.  On  the  contrary,  it  can  be  shown  positively 
inadequate  in  many  particulars. 

The  first  of  these  propositions  has  been  fully 
treated  elsewhere.  In  the  last  lecture  of  the  first 
volume  of  Pater  Mundi,  I  granted,  for  the  sake  of 
argument,  that  the  Law  Hypothesis  is  an  adequate 
explanation  of  Nature  ;  and  then  went  on  to  show 
at  length  that,  even  in  that  case,  the  true  explana- 
tion is  to  be  looked  for  in  another  quarter.  There 
is  another  hypothesis,  the  common  Theistic,  which 
also  is  adequate.  And  this  has  greatly  the  advan- 
tage of  the  other  in  several  respects,  which,  taken 
together,  are  so  weighty  as  to  be  overwhelmingly 
decisive  in  its  favor,  according  to  the  principles 
which  in  other  matters  uniformly  govern  the  judg- 


IF  ADEQUATE.  3! 

ments  of  both  practical  and  scientific  men.  I 
mean  chiefly  its  simplicity,  its  sureness,  its  salu- 
tary character,  and  its  striking  accord  with  what 
seem  to  be  the  primary  convictions  and  traditions 
of  mankind. 

But  I  now  withdraw  that  admission.  I  no 
longer  accept  the  Law  Scheme  as  sufficient  to 
explain  Nature.  On  the  contrary,  I  claim  that  it 
cannot  be  accepted  as  sufficient,  if  we  would  con- 
sistently hold  fast  to  the  principles  that  lie  at  the 
foundation  of  all  our  proven  knowledge. 

And,  first,  because  it  cannot  be  shown  to  be 
sufficient. 

Of  course  we  are  not  to  be  called  on  to  accept 
its  sufficiency  without  evidence.  That  ancient, 
established,  and  most  useful  doctrine  that  God  is 
needed  to  account  for  the  wonders  of  the  stellar, 
organic,  and  spiritual  universe,  cannot  reasonably 
be  asked  to  abdicate  the  throne  and  opulent  man- 
ors of  dignity  and  privilege  it  has  held  for  ages 
in  these  lands,  in  favor  of  a  quite  unsubstantiated 
claimant.  Can  the  Law  Hypothesis  be  substanti- 
ated —  at  least  so  far  as  to  show  that  matter,  with 
a  plenty  of  time  allowed  it,  can  form  itself  into, 
say,  the  bodies  and  souls  of  the  grandest  statesmen, 
philosophers,  and  saints  ?     I  answer  in  the  nega- 


32  SECOND   LECTURE. 

tive.  The  thing  is  intrinsically  impossible.  It 
never  has  been  done,  despite  the  greatest  efforts  ; 
and,  from  the  nature  of  the  case,  it  never  can  be 
done. 

Suppose  one  should  take  a  bit  of  albumen,  and 
after  passing  a  charge  of  electricity  through  it, 
should  see,  not  merely  a  globule  within  a  globule, 
but  atoms  hastening  to  atoms  and  arranging  them- 
selves into  a  rude  organism  in  which  life  at  once 
appears.  Suppose,  further,  that,  after  a  careful 
study  of  the  conditions  under  which  living  organ- 
isms have  best  flourished,  he  should  combine  and 
intensify  these  conditions  in  a  Forcing  Establish- 
ment ;  and,  introducing  into  it  the  new  organism, 
should  actually  see  it  pass  in  the  course  of  a  few 
hours  through  all  the  intermediate  forms  up  to  a 
full  man. 

Nay,  let  us  make  a  still  larger  supposition. 
We  will  suppose  the  following  bit  of  romance  from 
the  newspapers  to  be  solemnly  true  —  every  word 
of  it.  "  Dr.  Meissner  has  lately  shown  a  very 
wonderful  experiment  before  the  Berlin  Academy 
of  Sciences.  After  years  of  patient  study,  he  has 
succeeded  in  obtaining  a  certain  white  powder. 
This  powder  was  placed  in  a  hollow  glass  globe 
about  two  feet  in  diameter,  from  which  the  air 


CANNOT  BE  SHOWN  ADEQUATE.  33 

was,  as  nearly  as  possible,  withdrawn.  The  globe 
was  then  hung  from  the  ceiling  at  such  hight 
that  it  could  readily  be  watched  by  the  members 
of  the  Academy.  Dr.  Meissner  then  violently  agi- 
tated the  powder  by  shaking  the  globe  with  great 
force.  When  the  powder  had  become  chaotic  in 
its  forms,  he  allowed  the  globe  to  hang  quietly,  and 
requested  the  audience  to  watch  it  closely.  At 
first  all  was  confusion  ;  but  soon  the  powder  be- 
came brilliantly  prismatic  and  a  tremendous  motion 
pervaded  the  mass.  A  sudden  scintillation  of  the 
exterior  portions  succeeded,  and  a  flash  of  light 
shot  from  them  toward  the  center.  At  the  center 
was  then  seen,  in  rapid  process  of  formation,  an 
intensely  bright  crystal.  This  crystal  began  to 
revolve  slowly,  and,  as  it  was  the  only  portion  of 
the  whole  which  had  at  all  approached  the  solid 
form,  the  particles  of  powder  began  to  approach 
and  unite  themselves  to  it.  In  all  directions  the 
effects  of  attraction  were  seen  ;  and,  like  myriads 
of  scintillating  comets,  the  atoms  rushed  toward 
their  sun  till  all  had  united  themselves  to  it.  And 
now  this  sun  revolved  with  ever-increasing  rapid- 
ity, until,  as  the  centrifugal  force  overcame  the 
centripetal,  the  ball  in  whirling  threw  off  ring 
after  ring,  and  the  rings,  breaking,  rolled  up  into 
3 


34  SECOND   LECTURE. 

planets  revolving  rhythmically  around  the  central 
sun.  Selecting  the  third  planet  from  this  minia- 
ture sun,  which  represented  the  earth,  Dr.  Meiss- 
ner  provided  the  president  of  the  Academy  with  a 
powerful  magnifying-glass  {very  powerful)  and 
requested  him  to  examine  the  earth.  It  was  in  its 
azoic  age.  Not  a  trace  of  life  could  be  seen  on 
the  barren  rocks,  none  in  the  lonely  seas  breaking 
unimpeded  on  desolate  shores.  The  paleozoic  age 
came  on,  and  the  eye  could  trace  sea-weeds  and 
the  earliest  vegetation.  So  the  astonished  presi- 
dent went  through  the  mesozoic  era,  and  onward 
as  life  increased.  Vast  vegetable  forms,  mighty 
ferns,  tossing  their  giant  arms  in  the  gale,  ap- 
peared. Uncouth  monsters  crept  over  the  land, 
and  swam  in  the  seas.  Convulsions  rent  the 
earth's  crust,  and  hurried  millions  of  animated 
creatures  to  death.  Time  passed  and  men  ap- 
peared, digging  roots  and  ranging  the  forest. 
Cities  arose,  and  history  —  the  story  of  human 
woe  —  was  represented  on  this  mimic  world." 

There  is  an  experiment  for  you !  It  beats  Mun- 
chausen —  it  almost  beats  Maillet.  It  throws 
completely  into  the  shade  those  famous  discover- 
ies in  the  Moon  which  Sir  John  Herschel  was  once 
said  to  have  made  at  the  Cape  of  Good   Hope. 


CANNOT  BE  SHOWN  ADEQUATE.  35 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  next  time  the  German 
men  of  science  get  a  chance  at  that  remarkable 
glass,  they  will  notice,  and  make  a  note  of,  the 
histories  and  productions  and  people  of  the  other 
planets  of  our  system,  and  so  set  at  rest  several 
much  mooted  questions.  It  is  also  to  be  hoped 
that  they  will  be  at  pains  to  preserve  a  specimen 
tribe  or  two  of  those  primitive  human  savages, 
with  examples  of  the  roots  they  were  seen  sub- 
sisting on.  Perhaps  they  may,  by  following  down 
the  stream  of  development  very  far,  be  able  even 
to  discover  the  entire  Berlin  Academy  —  not  the 
smallest  thing  in  the  world  —  in  session,  with 
Meissner  himself  at  their  head,  astonishing  and 
enlightening  them  with  his  wonderful  experiment 
till  their  faces  shine  again.  Above  all,  let  them 
preserve  us  a  specimen  of  that.  It  would  be  worth 
preserving. 

But,  seriously,  suppose  such  experiments  were 
actually  made.  Would  even  they  decide  whether 
the  force  by  which  the  original  atoms  passed 
through  all  those  changes,  and  at  last  came  to- 
gether into  an  astronomical  system,  and  the  high- 
est vegetable  and  animal  forms,  was  a  force  inher- 
ent in  the  matter  itself,  or  an  extraneous  Divine 
force  ?     No  force  is  seen.     All  that  is  seen  is  the 


36  SECOND   LECTURE. 

moving  atom.  And  all  that  the  experiments  show 
is  that  some  invisible  force  acting  according  to 
law,  and  the  conditions  of  whose  action  man  is 
able  to  supply,  does  the  observed  wonders.  Now 
the  Divine  Force,  as  commonly  received,  answers 
this  description  perfectly.  All  intelligent  theists 
claim  that  God  is  in  the  habit  of  acting  in  this 
world  in  fixed  ways  and  under  fixed  conditions, 
which  can  be  discovered  by  men,  and  largely  sup- 
plied by  them.  Indeed,  it  is  essential  to  the  very 
idea  of  a  perfect  ruler  that  this  be  so.  Otherwise 
science  and  profiting  by  experience  would  be  im- 
possible. So  the  experiment  would  prove  just 
nothing  at  all  as  to  whether  forces  sufficient  to 
make  a  man  inhere  in  matter  itself.  It  would  only 
prove  that  such  forces  exist  somewhere.  That 
they  are  intrinsic  properties  of  the  very  atoms  has 
not  begun  to  be  proved.  And  yet  who  expects  to 
get  nearer  to  a  proof  of  the  adequacy  of  the  Law 
Hypothesis  than  he  would  be  at  the  close  of  such 
experiments  as  we  have  supposed  ?  At  present  we 
are  some  stellar  intervals  short  of  even  that.  We 
shall  need  to  do  that  impossible  thing  of  going 
some  stellar  intervals  beyond  it,  in  order  to  show 
that  matter,  out  of  its  own  inherent  resources,  can 
construct  the  miracles  of  organic  and  spiritual 
life. 


IS  NOT  ADEQUATE.  37 

It  is  enough  to  prevent  our  accepting  the  Law 
Scheme,  that  it  cannot  be  positively  shown  to  be 
an  adequate  explanation  of  Nature.  But  we  have 
much  more  than  this.  We  can,  I  think,  show  that 
the  scheme  is  not  an  adequate  explanation.  To 
this  the  rest  of  the  argument  will  be  devoted. 

Against  this  view  evolutionists  bring  several 
considerations.  I  will  notice  these  first.  And, 
first  of  all,  I  will  notice  the  allegation  that  actual 
examples  of  a  nebular  cosmogony,  of  spontaneous 
generation,  and  of  naturally  transmuted  species 
have  been  found.  Such  examples,  if  they  can  be 
furnished,  would  be  very  convincing.  No  better 
proof  that  Nature  can  do  a  thing,  than  proof  that 
she  has  actually  done  it. 

On  examining  these  examples,  however,  we  find 
that  they  are  not  what  they  profess  to  be.  The 
cases  of  spontaneous  world-building  turn  out  to 
be  no  cases  of  spontaneous  world-building  at  all ; 
at  the  very  utmost,  only  cases  of  worlds  becoming 
formed  and  arranged  in  accordance  with  the  laws 
of  heat  and  gravity.  The  cases  of  spontaneous 
generation  turn  out  to  be  no  cases  of  spontaneous 
generation  at  all ;  at  the  very  utmost,  only  cases 
of  organic  life  beginning  without  the  presence  of 
any  reproductive  germ.     The  cases  of  transmuta- 


38  SECOND  LECTURE. 

tion  of  species  by  natural  causes  turn  out  to  be 
not  cases  of  such  transmutation  at  all ;  at  the  very 
utmost,  only  cases  of  transmutation  under  natural 
conditions.  Granting  all  that  can  be  claimed  foi 
these  examples,  they  leave  totally  undecided,  as 
we  have  just  seen,  the  question  whether  the  un- 
seen force  that  first  brings  the  atoms  together, 
say  into  an  organic  form,  and  then  varies  that 
form  from  age  to  age,  is  a  force  belonging  to  the 
atoms  themselves,  or  an  outward  Divine  Force 
subjecting  itself  to  certain  constant  conditions 
and  laws.  I  say,  granting  that  the  examples  are 
made  out,  they  do  not  touch  the  matter  in  dis- 
pute. 

But  they  are  not  made  out.  As  yet  there  are 
no  proved  cases  of  worlds  formed  and  arranged  into 
systems  in  the  way  of  the  nebular  hypothesis  — 
no  proved  cases  of  vegetable  and  animal  births 
without  common  parentage  —  no  proved  cases  of 
transmuted  species.  Certainly  no  one  has  ever 
seen  a  fog  become  a  world  ;  no  succession  of  ob- 
servers, since  astronomy  began,  have  seen  it.  This 
is  not  claimed.  It  is  merely  matter  of  inference, 
on  the  part  of  some,  from  certain  physical  princi- 
ples and  certain  appearances  in  the  sky.  But  the 
justice  of  this  inference  is  still  largely  denied  by 


EXAMPLES   OF  EVOLUTION.  39 

astronomers  as  profound  and  eminent  as  any. 
And  most  of  those  who  in  some  sort  favor  it  do 
not  think  of  claiming  that  it  has  been  proved,  in 
any  proper  sense  of  the  word.  They  express 
themselves  interrogatively.  They  make  a  sug- 
gestion. They  speak  of  possibilities  and  plausi- 
bilities. They  see  some  things  or  many  things 
about  the  hypothesis  that  look  like  the  truth ; 
that  is  all.  As  to  positively  asserting  that  there 
is  a  single  proved  case  of  world-building  in  the 
way  of  natural  law,  in  all  the  round  of  the  sky, 
very  few  ripe  astronomical  scholars  indeed  would 
do  such  a  thing.  And  with  great  reason.  In  an- 
other place  I  hope  to  make  it  plain  that  there  is 
great  reason,  not  only  for  this  caution,  but  even 
for  emphatically  rejecting  the  nebular  hypothesis 
as  being  opposed  by  the  latest  discoveries. 

As  to  examples  of  spontaneous  generation 
among  plants  and  animals,  something  still  stronger 
can  be  said.  History  is  against  them.  Case  after 
case  of  such  generation,  as  confidently  put  for- 
ward as  any,  has  been  exploded  and  fully  given 
up  :  out  of  the  large  number  reported  to  us  a  few 
years  ago,  there  is  scarcely  one  that  has  not  been 
made  so  untenable  by  the  researches  of  Ehren- 
berg,  Pasteur,  and  others,  that  it  has  ceased  to  be 


40  SECOND  LECTURE. 

spoken  of.  And  at  the  present  time  it  is  admitted 
by  nearly  all  the  European  naturalists,  and  even 
by  nearly  all  of  them  who  are  decided  evolution- 
ists, that  as  yet  not  a  single  instance  of  organiz- 
ation without  seed  has  been  made  out.  "  The 
time  may  come,"  say  they,  "when  this  will  be 
done."  Some  seem  to  expect  that  it  will  come 
soon  ;  the  most  eminent  are  satisfied  that  it  has 
not  come  yet.  For  my  part  I  am  satisfied  that  it 
will  never  come.  The  history  will  go  on  repeat- 
ing itself.  These  men  will  continue  to  hear  of 
their  examples,  and  will  continue  to  see  them  fall 
to  pieces  under  the  mallet  of  careful  inquiry;  just 
as  it  always  has  been  from  the  days  of  the  acarus 
Crossii  down  to  Bastian's  bacteria.  So  I  believe. 
Elsewhere  I  propose  to  show  that  it  must  be  so. 
At  present  it  is  enough  to  call  attention  to  the 
fact  that  most  evolutionists  have  themselves  given 
up  their  cases  of  spontaneous  generation  ;  and 
that  those  few  cases  which  are  still  clung  to  by 
some,  are  wholly  within  that  misty  region  of  in- 
finitesimals where  one  easily  sees  there  must  be 
enormous  exposure  to  mistake.  It  is  an  abuse  of 
language  to  say  that  a  single  case  of  spontaneous 
generation  in  either  worlds  or  organisms  has  been 
proved  ;  while    disproof  in    long   succession  has, 


EXAMPLES  OF  EVOLUTION.  4 1 

from  the  beginning,  been  the  order  of  the  day. 
Standing  at  the  end  of  so  long  a  line  of  castaway 
examples  which  have  made  their  noise,  and  had 
their  day,  and  regularly  fallen  to  pieces,  one  after 
the  other  —  will  not  all  friends  of  the  Law  Scheme 
soon  lose  heart  as  to  what  the  future  will  bring 
them,  and  conclude  to  content  themselves  with 
that  old-fashioned  philosophy  which  finds  in  God 
the  direct  source  of  all  the  life  and  mechanics  of 
Nature  ? 

Evolutionists  also  allege  examples  of  trans- 
muted species,  and  cite  in  proof  very  many  ac- 
counts of  modifications  which  natural  organisms 
have  undergone  in  various  natural  ways. 

In  regard  to  these  accounts,  it  would  perhaps 
not  be  altogether  unpardonable  if  one  should 
modestly  suggest  —  especially  to  men  who  are 
apt  to  criticise  so  sharply  the  facts  brought  for- 
ward by  supernaturalists  —  that  there  is  just  the 
slightest  shade  of  doubt  as  to  the  correctness  of 
some  of  them.  We  like  to  have  our  data  sound. 
Facts  are  great  things,  but  then,  one  wants  to  be 
sure  that  they  are  facts.  Who  shall  assure  me 
that  some  of  these  eager  partisans  have  always 
been  sufficiently  careful  to  winnow  the  wheat 
from  the  chaff;  that  in  judging  of  what  is  true 


42  SECOND  LECTURE. 

they  have  always  used  the  good  judgment  which 
undoubtedly  they  possess  ;  that  they  have  never 
been   too  hasty  in  accepting   stories  which  they 
would  be  glad  to  find  true  (you  know  we  are  all 
poor,  weak   creatures)  ;  in  fine,  that  the  random 
assertions  and  undue  strength  of  statement  and 
palpable  non-seqiriturs  which  a  sensible  man  has 
no  trouble  in  finding  thickly  scattered  over  their 
books,  have  not  more  or  less  tampered  with  the 
facts  set  at  the  basis  of  their  reasonings  ?     When 
I  am  told  by  a  writer  that  he  understands  that 
a  gentleman  in  Sussex  has  succeeded  in  modify- 
ing that   very  plastic  bird,  the   rock  pigeon,  not 
only  into   the  fan-tailed    pigeon   and  the  pouter, 
but  also    into   a  sort   of  owl,   I    begin    to    shrug 
my  shoulders,  and  to  feel  somewhat  as  I  suppose 
some  readers  of  Maillet  felt  when  they  read,    "At 
Marseilles  the  fishermen  daily  find  in  their  nets, 
and  among  their  fish,  plants  of  a  hundred  kinds, 
with  their  fruits  still  upon  them.     They  there  find 
clusters  of  white    and  black  grapes,  peach-trees, 
pear-trees,  prune-trees,  apple-trees,  and    all  sorts 
of  flowers." 

Great  pains  have  been  taken  to  hunt  up,  and 
also  to  make,  cases  of  extreme  variation  in  plants 
and  animals.     Some  men  think  they  have  found 


EXAMPLES  OF  EVOLUTION.  43 

variations  actually  crossing  the  boundaries  of 
species.  And  I  have  no  doubt  they  have,  if  we 
allow  them  to  use  the  word  species  as  loosely  as 
many  do.  It  is  a  much  abused  word.  What 
have  really  been  only  varieties  of  the  same  spe- 
cies have  often  been  erected  into  so  many  sepa- 
rate species.  No  doubt  the  air  lines  arbitrarily 
parceling*  out  such  groups  have  often  been  varied 
across  organically,  and  will  be  again  ;  and  that 
without  going  very  far.  If  a  man  makes  the 
mistake  of  calling  the  negroes  a  distinct  species 
from  the  whites,  he  will  find  that  Nature  makes 
little  of  clearing  his  little  wall  ;  even  less  than 
Remus  did  of  leaping  over  the  wall  of  infant 
Rome.  But  if  he  sets  up  the  bounds  of  species 
where  two  groups  refuse  to  mingle  their  kinds, 
he  will  find  no  example  of  variation  across  such 
bounds.  No  such  examples  are  agreed  on  among 
naturalists. 

But  many  are  disposed  to  claim  that,  if  they 
cannot  point  to  any  such  examples,  they  can  at 
least  point  to  the  equivalents  of  these,  in  varia- 
tions quite  as  large  and  arduous  as  would  be 
required  to  pass  the  extreme  members  of  a  spe- 
cies into  adjoining  species.  They  tell  us  of  men 
who  not  onlv  look  and  act  amazing"! v  like  brutes 


44  SECOND   LECTURE. 

—  say  the  dog,  the  sheep,  the  goose,  the  donkey  — 
but  also  men  who  look  and  act  more  like  mon- 
keys than  they  do  like  the  better  sort  of  men. 
They  say  that  the  interval  between  extreme  spec- 
imens of  men  is  quite  as  large  and  formidable, 
anatomically  and  physiologically  and  intellect- 
ually, as  that  between  the  lowest  human  spec- 
imen and  some  apes.  And,  to  help  our  slow 
thought,  they  show  us  a  very  mortifying  chart  of 
heads  and  skeletons  in  which  the  ape  is  shaded 
off  by  minute  differences  into  the  highest  man. 
"  Now  look  at  this  carefully.  Do  you  not  see  that 
really  it  is  further  from  that  head  of  Newton  to 
this  head  of  Wamba,  than  it  is  from  Wamba's 
head  to  that  of  yonder  chimpanzee  ?  And  do 
you  not  see  just  as  clearly  that  it  is  further  from 
this  Caucasian  Apollo  to  that  hunchback  yEsop, 
than  it  is  from  that  /Esop  to  yon  athlete  gorilla, 
who  will  bend  a  gun-barrel  as  if  an  osier  ?  " 

I  answer  that  the  actual  variation  in  such  cases 
does  seem,  especially  at  first  view,  as  if  it  might 
be  about  as  large  and  difficult  as  that  required  to 
transmute  the  species.  But  then  there  is  reason 
to  suspect  that  this  seeming  may  be  deceptive  ; 
even  reason  to  believe  that  it  is  so.  Great  inner 
differences  are  very  often  found  underlying  great 


EXAMPLES  OF  EVOLUTION.  45 

resemblances,  and  almost  identity  of  appearance. 
Two  seeds  whose  shape  and  size  and  skin  look 
very  much  alike,  and  which,  if  cut  open,  would 
show  very  much  the  same  interior,  on  being 
planted  side  by  side,  are  found  coming  to  be  very 
different  plants.  How  is  this  ?  Of  course,  in  the 
dim  interiors  of  those  seeds  there  was  as  wide  a 
difference  as  there  is  between  the  plants  into 
which,  under  just  the  same  circumstances,  they 
finally  grow.  We  compare  two  worms :  under 
that  superficial  likeness  lurks  as  wide  a  difference 
as  there  is  between  the  butterfly  and  a  crawling 
reptile.  We  compare  two  embryos.  They  are 
almost  precisely  alike  both  to  the  eye  and  the 
glass  :  but  one  has  the  human  nature  wrapped 
up  in  it,  and  the  other  the  nature  of  the  swine. 
In  both  the  ape  and  the  man  there  are  large  un- 
known interiors  which  we  cannot  compare  :  and 
here  may  lie  hid  vast  dissimilarities,  as  in  a 
thousand  other  cases.  Just  beyond  where  that 
apish  man  has  come,  on  his  way  to  the  ape,  there 
may  be  an  invisible  structural  limit,  as  impassable 
as  the  unseen  Bastile  wall  which  stops  the  night 
walk  of  a  prisoner  :  and  that  such  a  limit  really 
exists  in  the  cases  alleged  is  strongly  suggested, 
both  by  the  great  spiritual  gulf  between  the  two, 


46  SECOND   LECTURE 

and  by  the  fact  that  neither  history,  nor  monu- 
ments, nor  the  strata  of  the  globe  show  the  least 
change  in  the  general  type  of  any  existing  spe- 
cies. It  has  always  been,  so  far  as  we  can  go 
back,  just  the  same  island  we  find  it  to-day  — 
just  as  widely  separated  from  its  neighbors  of  the 
same  archipelago.  And  it  is  found  that  all  the 
modifications  which  men,  with  much  pains,  bring 
about  in  breeds,  are  invariably  lost  when  the 
organisms  are  left  to  themselves  ;  as  they  always 
have  been  till  lately. 

But  this  is  but  a  small  part  of  the  answer  that 
should  be  made  to  the  claim  that  variations  have 
taken  place  within  a  species,  as  large  and  difficult 
as  would  be  needed  to  reach  a  neighboring  spe- 
cies. To  fairly  make  out  such  a  claim  and  have 
it  avail  for  the  purpose  of  the  evolutionist,  five 
things  must  be  proved.  I.  The  two  species  com- 
pared are  really  distinct.  Is  he  quite  sure  that 
his  argument  does  not  go  to  show  that  the  ape 
belongs  to  the  human  family — being  some  de- 
graded prodigal  son,  who,  generations  agone,  went 
into  a  far  country,  and  there  lived  like  swine  so 
long  that  he  has  come  to  apehood  on  his  way  to 
swinehood  ?  2.  The  variation  actually  observed 
took  place  under  purely  natural  forces  and  laws. 


EXAMPLES   OE  EVOLUTION.  47 

This  also  must  be  proved.  The  variation  has 
come  to  us  through  that  dim  and  wondrous  re"- 
gion  pointed  at  by  the  words  parentage  and  birtJi 
—  in  fact  through  a  long  succession  of  such  re- 
gions —  and  there  are  some  of  us  who  are  not 
disposed  to  admit  that  it  is  as  plain  as  day  that 
the  birth  of  a  man  from  his  equal  or  inferior  has 
nothing  supernatural  about  it.  3.  The  range  of 
the  actnal  variation  is  really,  as  well  as  apparently , 
as  large  and  hard  to  be  made  as  that  needed  to 
transmute  the  species.  And  this,  too,  must  be 
positively  proved.  It  will  not  answer  to  assume 
it.  As  facts  stand — with  such  spiritual  and 
historic  gulfs  between  the  species  compared,  and 
with  so  many  examples  of  natural  objects  that 
look  very  much  alike,  even  under  the  micro- 
scope, and  yet  are  known  to  be  widely  unlike  in 
their  more  inner  parts  —  how  can  I  feel  sure  that 
in  those  dim  interiors  of  the  man  and  the  ape 
which  our  knives  and  glasses  cannot  lay  open 
to  sight,  there  are  not  great  and  radical  phys- 
ical differences  ?  A  vast  terra  incognita  as  yet 
belongs  to  each  of  these  beings.  Not  Africa 
itself,  known  only  as  to  its  coast-line  and  a 
few  marginal  districts,  is  more  a  field  for  "Bruces 
and    Bakers    and    Livingstones.     4.    There   is   no 


48  SECOND   LECTURE. 

bound  of  an  unstructured  sort  limiting  varia- 
tion to  the  species.  And  this,  too,  should  be 
proved.  After  it  has  been  shown  that  there  is 
no  hidden  organic  limit,  it  is  still  a  question 
whether  there  may  not  be  one  of  the  inorganic 
sort.  It  is  conceivable  that  there  may  be  a 
chemical  limit  —  even  one  made  up  wholly  of 
space  and  time — a  wall  as  invisible  and  impal- 
pable as  that  which  keeps  us  from  going  to  the 
moon.  Indeed,  Nature  is  known  to  have  many 
such  shadowy  ne  plus  idtras,  as  invisible  and 
unstructural  as  the  line  of  perpetual  congelation. 
Such  are  those  that  limit  the  lives  of  all  plants 
and  animals.  Such  are  those  that  limit  their 
sizes.  That  which  keeps  two  very  unlike  species 
from  intermixture  does  not  seem  to  be  structural, 
but  the  contrary.  It  rather  seems  like  that  un- 
substantial spell  with  which  mediaeval  romancers 
were  so  fond  of  making  business  for  their  heroes, 
and  which  no  natural  forces  could  break  through. 
"The  knight  saw  nothing:  the  road  seemed 
quite  clear  for  miles  in  advance  :  but  he  could  no 
more  move  forward  than  if  a  castle  wall  stood 
across  his  path.  Then  he  knew  his  journey  was 
at  an  end.  He  had  reached  the  enchanted  dis- 
trict."    5.    TJierc  is  no  limit,  structural  or  u //struct- 


EXAMPLES  OE  EVOLUTION.  49 

uraly  at  any  point  of  the  long  highway  by  which 
we  follow  tip  the  organic  races  to  their  rude  begin- 
nings. The  evolutionist  must  prove  this,  too: 
for  it  will  be  of  no  use  to  show  that  a  variation 
has  taken  place  within  a  species,  equal  in  amount 
and  difficulty  to  what  would  be  required  to  carry 
some  members  of  it  into  the  nearest  neighbor- 
species,  if,  at  some  point  still  further  on,  the  vari- 
ation can  be  stopped  by  some  greater  barrier. 
There  must  be  a  clear  highway  down  through 
all  the  organic  territories  quite  to  the  monera, 
and  further.  At  least  there  must  be  no  bridge- 
less  rivers,  no  insuperable  mountains,  no  uncon- 
querable barricades  of  sans  culottes  powers  of 
Nature  on  all  that  long  road.  And  it  does  not 
follow  that  because  a  thief  can  get  into  a  neigh- 
bor's house,  he  can  get  into  every  house  on  the 
way  to  Washington.  It  is  conceivable  that  some 
species  may  be  more  heavily  barred  against  in- 
truders than  are  others,  and  that  some  may  be 
utterly  impregnable.  Indeed,  we  know  that  some 
species  oppose  change  much  more  strongly  than 
others.  The  goose,  for  example,  is  known  to 
remain  goose  with  great  obstinacy.  So  with  the 
ass,  o£^£2£ery_j[ariet}r.  And  there  is  positive 
reason  for  thinking  that  there  is  a  limit  to  varia- 
4 


cjO  SECOND  LECTURE. 

tion  somewhere,  in  the  fact  that  as  we  approach 
the  extremes  of  any  species,  the  difficulty  of  a 
variation  rapidly  increases  —  strongly  suggesting 
that  at  no  distant  point  the  difficulty  will  be  in- 
superable. 

When  have  all  these  five  points  been  positively 
proved  ?  So  far  as  I  know,  the  attempt  to  do  it 
has  never  been  made.  And  we  have  ground  for 
believing  that,  if  made,  it  would  not  be  successful. 
And  yet  these  are  the  five  points  of  Calvinism  to 
this  argument  of  the  evolutionist  —  the  essence 
of  the  whole  thing. 

But  many  friends  of  evolution  evidently  have 
the  idea  that  it  is  by  no  means  necessary  to 
furnish  examples  of  large  organic  variations,  in 
order  to  prove  that  species  may  be  naturally 
transmuted.  To  them  all  examples  are  such 
proof;  especially  if  they  are  very  abundant,  re- 
late to  the  more  essential  parts  of  structure,  and 
show  change  in  almost  every  direction.  It  seems 
to  them  plain  that  if  Nature  can  make  one  small 
organic  variation,  it  can  make  another  like  it, 
and  then  another  ;  and  so  may  go  on  adding 
equals  to  equals  till  at  last  any  given  organic 
interval  is  passed  over  —  even  that  which  parts  a 
man  from    sea-weed.     Accordingly,   they   fill    up 


EXAMPLES  OF  EVOLUTION.  5  I 

their  books  with  detailed  cases,  from  as  wide  a 
field  as  possible,  of  small  variations  in  plants 
and  animals  ;  chiefly  such  as  are  brought  about 
by  skillful  human  effort.  And  they  treat  such 
cases  as  if  they  were  virtually  so  many  examples 
of  transmuted  species. 

Of  course  they  are  nothing  of  the  sort.  Still 
it  is  well  to  inquire  at  this  point,  what  force  such 
instances  of  variation  really  have.  Can  evolu- 
tionists properly  infer  from  them  even  the  pos- 
sibility of  the  transmutation  of  species  by  natural 
causes  ? 

To  infer  from  the  fact  that  you  can  stretch 
an  elastic  a  little  way,  that  you  can  go  on  stretch- 
ing it  indefinitely  ;  that,  because  you  can  creep 
up  the  mountain  slope  somewhat,  you  can  go  on 
creeping  till  you  reach  the  zenith-moon,  or  even 
the  beetling  brow  of  yon  dizzy  precipice  not 
twenty  yards  away  ;  that,  because  the  prisoner 
of  Chillon  can  pace  freely  across  his  scanty  cell, 
he  can  extend  his  walk  beyond  that  leaguer  of 
iron  and  rock  that  frowns  around  him,  into  all 
Switzerland,  and  even  into  all  the  world,  is  not 
,  exactly  the  highest  style  of  scientific  reasoning. 
How  know  these  strange  logicians  that  the  vari- 
able terms  in  organic    beings   are   not  so   many 


52  SECOND   LECTURE. 

prisoners  of  Chillon  !  They  have  some  liberty. 
There  is  some  length  to  their  chain.  There  is 
a  space  within  which  they  can  very  freely  pace 
up  and  down.  But  how  do  you  know  that  this 
space  is  not  that  of  a  narrow  cell,  and  that  a  few 
short  steps  will  not  bring  the  promenade  up 
squarely  against  impassable  barriers  ?  This  much 
you  do  know  —  that  natural  limits  must  be  reached, 
sooner  or  later,  on  all  the  observed  lines  of  organic 
variation.  Who  supposes  that  the  breed  of  sheep 
which  can  be  improved  somewhat  in  size  and  color 
and  range  of  diet  and  fineness  of  wool  and  dura- 
tion of  life  and  length  of  tail  —  say  into  a  South 
Down  or  a  Thibete  —  could,  with  any  amount  of 
time  and  pains,  be  made  as  large  as  a  man-of- 
war,  or  as  pictured  as  a  peacock,  or  as  little  of  a 
vegetarian  as  a  tiger,  or  as  long-lived  as  an  astral 
system,  or  as  long-tailed  as  the  most  favored 
comet ;  or  even  cease  to  be  unmistakable  mutton  ? 
Who  supposes  it  ?  And  who  knows  but  that 
these  anatomical,  or  physiological,  or  circumstan- 
tial dead  walls  which  must  at  last  be  reached, 
may  be  reached  soon  ;  in  fact,  be  reached  before 
that  line  of  species  is  crossed  which  the  races 
have  never  yet  been  found  crossing,  and  where 
they  resolutely  refuse  to  mingle  ? 


EXAMPLES  OF  EVOLUTION.  53 

Indeed,  the  stress  of  appearance  is  all  toward 
showing  that  the  variable  terms  in  plants  and  ani- 
mals are  like  those  belonging  to  many  mathemati- 
cal formulae.  In  these  formulae  the  variables  are 
mixed  with  great  controlling  constants,  and  the 
amount  of  variation  is  never  such  as  to  alter  the 
specific  shape  of  the  whole  symbol.  Look  at  those 
formulae  which  express  and  solve  the  Higher  As- 
tronomical Problems.  Here  on  the  earth  we  have 
certain  organic  systems  which  we  call  plants  and 
animals.  Out  yonder  in  the  depths  of  the  sky  we 
find  certain  other  elaborate  systems  which  we  call 
satellite  systems,  planetary  systems,  and  solar  sys- 
tems These  celestial  systems  have  the  advantage 
of  being  expressible  mathematically.  Examining 
their  mathematical  expressions,  we  find  that  in  no 
instance  does  a  variable  term  vary  indefinitely, 
and  in  no  instance  does  the  sum  of  all  the  varia- 
tions in  any  formula  avail  to  alter  radically  its  form. 
Each  scheme  of  worlds  holds  fast  to  its  specific 
character,  whatever  secondary  changes  it  may  un- 
dergo. The  size  of  each  orbit  varies,  its  shape 
varies,  its  inclination  varies,  varies  its  place  in  the 
system  ;  in  short,  almost  everything  about  a  ce- 
lestial system  is  changing  constantly.  And  there 
was  a  time  when  it  was  yet  a  grave,  unanswered 


54  SECOND  LECTURE. 

question  whether  such  changes  might  not  go  on 
heaping  themselves  up  indefinitely,  and  at  last 
bring  ruin  to  our  Solar  System.  Some  predicted 
the  worst.  Why  not  ?  The  changes  were  real, 
they  were  numerous,  they  were  confessed  by  all 
astronomers,  they  were  creeping  forward  with  the 
steady  ease  and  determination  of  a  natural  law  ; 
nowhere  were  there  visible  goals  toward  which  the 
perturbations  traveled  :  and  not  a  few  trembled 
and  said,  There  are  no  goals,  and  the  System  must 
pass  on  and  on  to  dire  confusion  and  wreck  — 
just  as  some  say  now  in  view  of  a  cooling  sun 
or  retarding  ether.  Then  La  Grange  arose.  He 
invoked  the  aid  of  the  mightiest  Calculus.  "  Tell 
me,"  said  he,  "  what  is  to  be  the  upshot  of  this  ? 
Must  we  all  perish  in  the  endless  ongoings  of  these 
celestial  variables  ? "  To  these  unpromising  ques- 
tions he  grappled  his  giant  Geometry.  It  was  a 
hard  struggle  ;  every  muscle  heaped  itself  into 
knots,  and  quivered  ;  but  at  last  the  giant  over- 
came. Every  change  turned  out  to  be  periodical. 
Every  variable  element  reluctantly  gave  up  to  view 
the  twin  Ultima  Thule  hidden  in  its  bosom.  Not 
only  were  these  limits  real,  but  in  most  cases  they 
were  not  far  apart.  They  were  also  found  to  in- 
here in    the   very    Law    of  Gravity  ;    that    is  to 


EXAMPLES  OF  EVOLUTION.  55 

say,  in  the  very  constitution  of  the  variable  itself. 
So  our  System  was  safe.  And  there  went  up 
from  the  whole  scientific  world  a  joyful  shout  as  if 
for  a  great  deliverance.  The  great  Problem  of  the 
Stability  of  the  System  of  the  World  was  crowned. 
Crowned  was  the  great  Geometer.  And  from 
that  day  to  this  the  name  of  La  Grange  has  been 
green  both  summer  and  winter  ;  and  every  astron- 
omer who  notices  a  change  going  on  in  the  sky, 
under  the  influence  of  gravity,  at  once  sets  it 
down  as  a  prisoner  of  Chillon,  able  to  go  only  the 
length  of  a  short  chain,  and  closely  shut  in  by 
hopeless  walls.  The  heavens  are  full  of  such  im- 
prisoned variations.  Not  one  of  them  but  is  pent 
within  narrow  limits  by  the  very  constitution 
and  underlying  law  of  the  variable.  Who.  shall 
say  that  it  is  not  so  with  these  earthly  variations 
which  evolutionists  make  so  much  of  —  the  vari- 
ations among  plants  and  animals  ?  It  is  even 
easier  to  believe  in  "  metes  and  bounds  "  to  these, 
than  it  was  to  believe  in  them  as  belonging  to  the 
astronomical  variations  before  the  discoveries  of 
La  Grange.  These  earthly  perturbations  are  less 
fluent,  less  steady,  less  general,  less  large,  and  on 
the  whole  less  suggestive  of  unobstructed  progress 
and  indefinite  continuance,  than  the  perturbations 


56  SECOND   LECTURE. 

in  the -sky.     Without  any  Geometry,  one  seems, 
at  times,  as  he  peers  through  the  glooms,  to  al- 
most or  quite  catch  the  glinting  of  the  chain  that 
cannot  be  broken,  and  of  the  prison  wall  that  can- 
not be  passed  ;  especially  when  he  looks  toward 
the  hybrids.     In  them  he  thinks  he  almost  sees 
the  permanence  of  species.     At  all  events,  as  he 
looks,  it  becomes  easy  to    believe   that   through 
many  changes  all   our  fauna  and    flora  maintain 
substantial   identity   of  type  ;  and   that,    if  they 
could  be  expressed  by  mathematical  formulae,  we 
should  find  these   formulae   as  steadfast   in  their 
general  form  as  are  those  which  express  the  history 
and  assure  the  equilibrium  of  the  Heavenly  Bodies. 
We  do  not  need  to  furnish  the  evolutionist  with 
positive  proof  of  the  permanence  of  species.     It  is 
enough  to  show  that  it  is  an  altogether  unwarrant- 
able and  most  unphilosophical  thing  to  say,  that, 
because  a  plant  or  animal  can  be  varied  a  little 
toward  the  limits  of  its  species,  it  can  be  varied 
victoriously  across  those  limits,  and  indeed  across 
the  whole  kingdom  of  animated  Nature.     What 
more  credible  than  that  a  Creator  might  see  rea- 
son to  give  a  certain  elasticity  to  organic  beings, 
to  enable    them  to   accommodate    themselves   to 
certain  changing  conditions,  and  yet  see  reason  to 
confine  that  elasticity  within  certain  narrow  limits  ? 


III. 
CHIEF  DEFENSE. 

Uvp  kclI  vSuf)  Kal  yrjv  kcll  depot,  <f>vaei  Tvavra  etvai  <£aov 
~€XV11  ^  ovScv  tovtwv.  —  Plato. 

Ipsa  sua  per  se  sponte  omnia  dis  agere  expers.  Ex 
omnibus  rebus  omne  genus  nasci  posset ;  nil  semine 
egeret.  —  Lucretius. 


III.   Chief  Defense. 

i.    ALLEGED  EXAMPLES •        .     59 

2.  HARMONIES  WITH  NATURE .      60 

3.  COURSE  OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIENCE  ..        .  .63 


THIRD  LECTURE. 


CHIEF   DEFENSE. 

I  HAVE  considered  one  part  of  the  argument 
in  support  of  the  Law  Scheme.  This  lies  in 
certain  supposed  examples  of  natural  world-build- 
ing, of  spontaneous  generation  of  organic  beings, 
and  of  transmutation  of  species  by  the  forces  and 
laws  of  matter.  It  was  said  that  these  examples 
are  not  real  ;  and  that,  if  real,  in  the  sense  meant 
by  evolutionists,  they  would  still  leave  it  unproven 
that  the  forces  and  laws  whose  results  are  seen, 
belong  inherently  to  matter. 

I  now  proceed  to  two  other  parts  of  the  general 
argument  of  evolutionists.  One  is  from  certain 
harmonies  between  their  scheme  and  observed  fact ; 
the  other  is  from  the  course  of  scientific  experience. 
The  first  topic  I  shall  speak  of  very  briefly.  The 
other  will  be  treated  more  at  length,  as  its  greater 
plausibility  deserves. 

Evolutionists   invite   us  to  consider -the   many 


60  THIRD   LECTURE. 

resemblances,  more  or  less  striking,  between  dif- 
ferent sorts  of  animals,  and  even  between  animals 
and  plants  ;  also,  that  obvious  gradation  in  organic 
beings  which  enables  them  to  compose  a  sort  of 
animated  staircase,  from-  so  simple  a  thing  as  sea- 
weed up  to  so  high  and  complex  a  thing  as  man  ; 
also,  the  general  advance  of  the  races  in  grade 
along  the  geologic  ages  ;  also,  the  nascent  features 
of  some  species  prophesying  of  next  later  species  ; 
also,  the  successive  aspects  of  the  human  foetus 
suggesting  strongly  the  alleged  organic  progress 
of  the  fossils  ;  also,  occasional  monstrosities  and 
rudimentary  organs  ;  and  so  on.  Such  facts  are 
admitted.  They  have  been  admitted,  most  of 
them,  from  time  immemorial.  Do  these  men  tell 
us  anything  new  when  they  tell  us  that  the  body 
of  a  man  has  many  points  of  likeness  to  an  ape,  or 
even  to  a  fish,  or  even  to  a  worm,  or  even  to  a  veg- 
etable, or  even  to  the  unorganized  mineral  ?  We 
knew  that  before.  It  was  known  long  ages  before 
Darwin  and  his  disciples  were  born.  A  certain 
very  old  book  did  not  neglect  to  inform  the  most 
ancient  times  that  man  has  a  lower  nature  that 
allies  him  to  the  brutes,  as  well  as  a  higher  nature 
that  allies  him  to  God  ;  and  even  that  this  lower 
nature  was   made   out  of  the  dust   of  the  earth. 


HARMONIES  WITH  NATURE.  6 1 

Hearing  the  friends  of  evolution,  one  might  sup- 
pose that  the  world  had  not  all  along  been  aware 
of  this  class  of  facts  ;  that  evolutionists  were  the 
recent  discoverers  of  it :  whereas  all  they  have 
done  has  been  to  give  some  new  illustrations  of 
a  doctrine  as  old  as  the  hills,  and  which,  time 
out  of  mind,  has  been  doing  service  in  the  cause 
of  religion.  Yes,  most  certainly,  we  admit  such 
facts.  And  we  even  admit  that  they  harmonize 
with  the  Law  Scheme.  Doubtless,  if  the  world 
was  made  in  the  way  this  scheme  suggests,  we 
ought  to  find  them. 

But  what  then  ?  Does  it  follow  that  we  should 
not  find  them  all  the  same,  if  each  distinct  species 
came  directly  from  the  hands  of  a  Personal  Crea- 
tor? Who  does  not  see  it  —  all  these  things  agree 
just  as  well  with  the  traditional  hypothesis  of  cre- 
ation as  with  the  other.  What  is  there  hard  in  the 
idea  that  God  made  all  the  natural  organisms 
with  a  thread  of  unity  running  through  them  ; 
made  them  of  different  grades ;  introduced  these 
different  grades  at  different  times,  after  an  orderly 
fashion,  beginning  with  the  lowest ;  follows  a  cer- 
tain standard  process  in  continuing  the  succession 
of  each  grade  ;  and  so  on  ?  It  is  true  that  mon- 
strosities   and  rudimentary  organs,  if  they  could 


62  THIRD   LECTURE. 

be  proved  both  normal  to  the  system  and  useless, 
would  be  against  the  Christian  Theism  :  but  the 
fact  that  we  do  not  happen  to  see  the  use  —  say 
of  incipient  wings,  feet,  teeth,  tails  —  is  certainly 
no  proof  that  such  use  does  not  exist.  What 
accomplished  physiologist  but  will  readily  confess 
that  his  knowledge  of  organic  functions  is  exceed- 
ingly narrow  and  imperfect?  How  often  have 
uses  been  detected  which  had  never  been  sus- 
pected ?  In  view  of  the  mere  history  of  science, 
that  is  a  rash  philosopher  who  affirms  that  the. 
only  use  of  wings  is  for  flying,  of  feet  for  walking, 
of  teeth  for  eating,  and  of  tails  for  brushing  away 
backbiters. 

And,  besides,  was  ever  an  hypothesis  so  absurd 
that  it  did  not  find  some  things,  nay,  many  things, 
to  agree  with  in  this  crowded  universe  ?  I  would 
like  to  give  you  some  exquisite  specimens  :  but  I 
fear  all  your  sobriety  would  desert  you.  Suffice  it 
to  say,  that  not  the  wildest  dream  in  the  whole 
range  of  the  grotesque  and  absurd  and  impossible, 
has  failed  to  touch  and  coincide  with  the  actual,  at 
some  points.  It  were  strange,  indeed,  if  the  Law 
Dream  were  worse  off  in  this  respect  than  any 
other.  Of  course  it  is  perfectly  consistent  with 
many  facts.     But  the  question  is  not  whether  it  is 


COURSE   OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIENCE.        63 

consistent  with  many  facts  ;  but  whether  it  is  con- 
sistent with  all  facts,  and  especially  with  the  lead- 
ing. There  is  not  a  crooked  stick  to  be  found 
which  will  not  fit  many  parts  of  the  broad  earth's 
surface ;  but  how  badly  it  expresses  the  general 
shape  of  the  earth,  and  the  underlying  glorious  arc 
of  the  meridian !  Doubtless,  the  Law  Scheme 
fits  kindly  to  some  superficial  parts  of  great  Na- 
ture :  a  more  pertinent  fact  is  that  it  does  not  fit 
kindly  to  many  of  Nature's  more  essential  and 
generic  features  ;  that  it  is  positively  in  conflict 
with  them  as  expressed  in  the  leading  sciences  of 
the  day.  This  I  hope  to  make  plain  on  reaching 
the  positive  side  of  our  subject. 

I  come  now  to  a  more  plausible  argument  of 
the  evolutionists  ;  that  from  the  course  of  scientific 
experience. 

Perhaps  this  argument  cannot  be  more  strongly 
stated  than  as  follows.  Once,  almost  all  phenom- 
ena were  ascribed  to  the  direct  action  of  Deity  ; 
the  progress  of  science  has  ever  been  to  limit  this 
originally  vast  field  of  the  supernatural,  and  to  en- 
large that  of  natural  causes  ;  this  course  of  things 
has  continued  so  long  and  carried  us  so  far  that 
now  intelligent  men  almost  universally  admit,  not 
only  that  atomic  forces  and  laws  are  real,  but  that 


64  THIRD  LECTURE. 

immense  sections  of  natural  objects,  and  very 
many  wonderful  things,  such  as  some  chemical 
compounds  and  all  the  marvels  of  crystallization, 
are  actually  produced  by  them  ;  and  so  it  is  now 
one  of  the  most  natural  things  in  the  world,  and 
even  a  true  dictate  of  experience,  to  suppose  that  we 
can  go  on  much  further  in  the  same  direction,  and 
that  really,  it  is  nothing  but  our  narrowness  of  fac- 
ulty and  life  that  prevents  our  distinctly  tracing 
all  wonders  to  the  same  natural  causation  which 
we  admit  gives  us  the  wonders  of  chemistry  and 
crystallization.  Besides,  why  are  not  the  reasons 
on  which  we  admit  the  purely  natural  origin  of 
these  latter  wonders,  just  as  good  for  admitting 
the  purely  natural  origin  of  those  others  whose 
names  are  plants  and  animals  and  astronomic  sys- 
tems ;  especially  in  view  of  the  fact  that  the  low- 
est of  organic  beings  do  not  differ  sensibly  in 
grade  from  the  highest  of  the  inorganic  ? 

Such  is  the  argument.  I  have  stated  it  as 
strongly  as  possible.  So  stated,  it  has  at  first 
view  a  plausible  look  ;  owing  to  its  having  a  gen- 
erous outline  of  fact,  certain  quiet  assumptions 
colored  to  imitate  fact,  and  over  all  a  showy  vague- 
ness of  language  which  well  hides  obnoxious  par- 
ticulars.    The  really  empty  argument  is  made  to 


COURSE   OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIENCE.        65 

seem  sound  in  very  much  the  same  way  that  yon- 
der bush,  with  a  rag  upon  it,  is  made  to  seem 
a  true  human  form  in  the  deceitful  moonlight. 
Something  that  might  pass  for  a  human  outline  is 
really  there  ;  the  fancy  quietly  supplies  some  con- 
venient additions  ;  and  the  vague  shimmer  of  the 
moon  ekes  out  the  awful  giant.  The  child's  hair 
stands  on  end.  And  yet  the  whole  thing  is  emp- 
tiness. And  so  is  this  argument  from  the  course 
of  scientific  experience.  Its  premises  are  largely 
assumptions  ;  and,  if  they  were  proven,  they 
would  not  warrant  the  conclusion  drawn  from 
them. 

It  is  not  admitted  that  the  difference  between 
the  highest  inorganic  and  the  lowest  organic  being 
is  small.  It  may  be  small  to  the  sense,  but  it  is 
not  small  to  the  reason.  The  humblest  organic 
being  has  the  principle  of  life,  the  highest  inor- 
ganic has  none  of  it ;  the  one  has  the  principle  of 
growth,  the  other  has  none  of  it ;  the  one  has  the 
principle  of  reproduction,  the  other  has  none  of 
it  ;  the  one  is  a  system  of  organized  instruments 
conspiring  to  one  result,  the  other  is  not  necessa- 
rily any  instrument  at  all.  Certainly  these  are 
radically  very  different  things,  though  seeming  so 
much  alike.    Is  this  so  very  strange  ?     The  horse 


66  THIRD    LECTURE. 

that  neighed  to  the  canvas-horse  of  Apelles  and 
got  no  answer  ;  the  bird  that  pecked  at  the  can- 
vas-grapes of  Zeuxis  and  found  no  food ;  still 
more  the  Zeuxis  himself  who  put  out  his  hand  to 
lift  the  canvas-curtain  of  Parrhasius,  and  took 
derisive  laughter  instead,  might  have  suggested 
as  much. 

The  best  senses  are  no  infallible  popes.  No 
Ecumenical  has  yet  been  bold  enough  to  say 
it  of  them.  They  are  unable  to  take  any  note 
whatever  of  many  gross  differences.  Here  are 
two  seeds.  To  all  our  organs  the  inner  matter  of 
the  two  seems  very  much  one  thing,  the  same 
white,  unorganized  farina  ;  and  yet  they  must  dif- 
fer constituently  from  each  other  as  much  as  do 
the  tiny  flower  and  the  lordly  tree  into  which  the 
same  soil  will  finally  develop  them.  —  Here  are 
two  eggs.  To  all  our  senses  the  inner  substance 
of  the  two  seems  very  much  one  thing  —  the  same 
yellow  yolk  and  white  albumen — and  yet  really 
these  eggs  must  differ  constituently  from  each 
other  as  much  as  do  the  unsightly  reptile  and  the 
beautiful  bird  into  which  the  same  incubation  will 
finally  ripen  them.— Here  are  two  stars.  To  all 
common  observation  they  seem  quite  alike  —  the 
same  radiant  eye  —  and  yet  one  is  a  mere  light- 


COURSE   OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIENCE.        67 

house  flame  a  few  miles  away,  while  the  other  is  a 
solid  world  on  which  great  nations  might  dwell, 
to  whose  golden  skirts  a  family  of  planets  cling, 
and  whose  rays  are  shot  at  us  across  abysses 
which  might  almost  weary  the  wings  of  angels. 

So  do  not  say  that  because  in  certain  cases 
the  organic  and  inorganic  are  almost  perfectly 
alike  to  our  gross  senses,  they  may  not  be 
very  unlike  in  their  more  interior  constitution. 
They  must  be.  They  must  differ  from  each  other 
as  do  mysterious  life  and  death  ;  indeed,  as  do 
whole  systems  of  such  stupendous  opposites. 
They  must  be  like  two  rays  coming  to  us  from 
opposite  sides  of  the  same  star.  Within  our 
sphere  these  bright  lines  are  practically  one  ;  but 
the  deeper  we  go  into  space,  the  further  apart  are 
they,  and  at  last  they  are  found  apart  by  the  whole 
breadth  of  a  mighty  sun.  Such  is  the  final  inter- 
val that  divides  the  organic  from  the  inorganic. 
At  least,  who  can  show  the  contrary  ? 

Again,  it  is  not  admitted  that  the  reasons  on 
which  men  receive  —  if  they  intelligently  receive 
it  at  all  —  that  atomic  forces  and  laws  are  the 
sources  of  chemical  compounds  and  crystals, 
are  just  as  good  for  admitting  that  they  are  the 
sources  of  the  highest  natural  structures.     These 


68  THIRD  LECTURE. 

reasons  are  as  follows  :  Atomic  forces  and  laws 
are  known  to  exist  ;  they  seem  equal  to  that 
low  grade  of  product ;  it  actually  seems  pro- 
duced by  them ;  and  there  is  no  assignable 
reason  why  the  seeming  does  not  express  the 
reality.  Now  this  last  feature,  to  say  the  least, 
does  not  belong  to  the  new  case.  There  are  as- 
signable positive  reasons,  and  many  of  them,  why 
we  may  not  admit  that  matter  ever  makes  itself 
into  organic  beings.  Some  of  these  have  already 
been  given.  And  many  others  I  propose  soon  to 
give  from  sciences  which  are  the  special  pets  and 
boasts  of  unbelievers.  It  can  even  be  shown,  I 
think,  that  principles  which  underlie  the  whole 
body  of  our  experimental  science  positively  de- 
mand that  we  ascribe  living  organic  Nature  to 
nothing  short  of  an  intelligent  author.  We  must 
do  this  or  have  no  science  at  all.  And  indeed  no 
reliable  business.  For  all  our  common  affairs  are 
actually  conducted  on  principles  which,  if  applied 
to  religion,  would  give  us  a  God  who  is  both 
direct  maker  and  governor  of  organic  Nature.  It 
is  a  part  of  my  plan  to  show  this. 

Further.  I  do  not  admit  that  Deity  was  once 
generally  supposed  the  direct  author  of  almost  all 
phenomena.     This    has   never    been  the   popular 


COURSE    OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIENCE.        69 

faith.    The  true  statement  would  be,  that  in  unen- 
lightened times  men  were  apt  to  ascribe  all  events 
of  a  very  unusual  or  startling  character,  not  other- 
wise readily  explainable,  to  direct  Divine  action  ; 
for  example,  such  events  as  earthquakes,  volcanic 
eruptions,  eclipses.     It  is  true   that  this  class  of 
events    has    gradually   come,  in    the    advance  of 
knowledge,  to  be  ascribed  to  natural  causes  ;  but 
it  is  not  so  clearly  true  that  the  field  of  the  super- 
natural, as  viewed  by  men,  has  at  all  narrowed  in 
consequence.     It    has    narrowed  at    some  points, 
and  enlarged  at  others.     While  the  waters  have 
encroached  on  the  great  continent  here,  they  have 
retreated  yonder.     And,  on  the  whole,  no  ground 
has  been  lost.     Indeed,  I  am    disposed  to  claim 
that  much  ground  has  been  gained  ;  that  the  same 
science  which  has  enlarged  before  us  the  field  of 
natural  causation,  has  more  than  correspondingly 
enlarged  before  us  the  field  of  the  supernatural  ; 
that  the  same  science  which  has  explained  many 
things  on  purely  natural  principles,  has  more  than 
made  up  for  this  by  greatly  enlarging  the  wonder- 
fulness  of  countless  known  objects  which  cannot 
be    so    explained,    and    by  discovering   countless 
other  objects  equally  wonderful  which  were  quite 
unknown  to  our  recent  ancestors.     Who  does  not 


JO  THIRD  LECTURE. 

know  that  the  wonderfulness  of  Nature  has  in- 
creased on  us  greatly  faster  than  her  explainable- 
ness  ? 

I  say,  who  does  not  know  it  ?  The  one  has 
expanded  like  the  astronomical  spaces,  the  other 
more  like  the  area  of  geographical  discovery.  Ten 
problems  rain  upon  us,  to  one  solution  of  a  prob- 
lem. And  the  further  we  go,  the  larger  and  swifter 
fall  the  drops,  and  the  more  prismatic  with  beauti- 
ful mystery  do  they  show  between  us  and  the  sun. 
So  that,  with  all  our  explanations,  Nature  is  ever 
getting  more  high  and  deep  and  awful.  The  more 
we  know,  the  greater  seem  the  things  to  be  known. 
The  deeper  we  go  into  the  structure  of  any  nat- 
ural organism,  the  more  exquisite  and  bewildering 
does  that  structure  seem.  It  is  as  when  we  enter 
some  caves.  With  every  step  of  advance,  the 
higher  swells  the  grotto,  the  larger  and  grander 
range  the  apartments,  and  the  less  impression 
do  our  torches  make  on  the  deepening  and  yet 
superber  glooms. 

Never  was  the  universe  so  wonderful  to  human 
eyes  as  it  is  to-day.  The  heavens  that  shone  in 
at  the  eye  of  the  Hebrew  Psalmist  were  a  mere 
blank,  compared  with  the  Newtonian  heavens 
which  shine  in  at  our  eyes.     The  terrestrial  Na- 


COURSE   OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIENCE.        J I 

ture  that  went  darkling  through  the  Middle  Ages 
was  a  mere  beggar,  compared  with  the  Crcesus- 
Nature  that  goes  with  more  than  oriental  pomp 
and  largess  along  our  highways. 

See  the  exquisite  refinements  of  animal  and 
vegetable  structure,  which  the  present  lancet  and 
microscope  display  ;  see  the  glorious  celestial 
mechanics  that  blaze  in  the  foci  of  our  present 
telescopes  and  mathematics ;  see  the  long  series 
of  life-epochs  which  now  bestar  to  us,  with  their 
radiant  mile-stones,  the  prodigious  track  of  the 
geologic  ages — such  facts  as  these,  and  not  nat- 
ural explanations  of  such  things  as  thunder  and 
lightning,  make  the  leading  feature  of  our  present 
science !  These  are  really  the  facts  whose  scep- 
ters govern,  and  whose  coronets  dazzle  our  times. 

Accordingly,  I  suppose  that  to-day  the  faith  of 
intelligent  and  devout  theists  —  men  both  intelli- 
gent and  devout  —  in  the  direct  Divine  production 
of  profuse  natural  objects,  is  not  only  more  intense 
and  broad  and  firm  than  ever  before,  but  that  it 
relates  to  a  much  larger  proportion  of  particulars. 
Indeed,  such  persons  now  almost  universally  be- 
lieve that  a  direct  Divine  action  is  mixed  up  inti- 
mately with  the  production  of  all  events,  great 
and  small,  that  swarm  through  the  daily  universe. 


J  2  -THIRD  LECTURE. 

And  so  it  happens  that  all  sorts  of  things  are  now 
more  freely  made  subjects  of  prayer  than  ever 
before.  We  feel  far  more  at  liberty  than  did  our 
fathers,  to  carry  the  smallest  items  of  family  and 
personal  interest  to  the  ear  of  Heaven.  The  mi- 
croscope has  not  lightened  in  vain.  Not  in  vain 
has  that  endless  revolver,  especially  for  the  last 
generation,  been  constantly  blazing  and  reporting 
away  at  the  minims  of  Nature.  It  has  reported 
wonders  of  exquisite  littleness  ;  a  populous  world 
hanging  from  the  point  of  a  needle.  And  we  have 
come  to  feel,  more  than  ever,  that  nothing  is  too 
small  for  the  personal  attention  and  interference 
of  God.  If  we  are  less  superstitious  than  the  an- 
cients, I  trust  we  have  a  wider  faith.  If  the  mira- 
cles of  saints  and  demons  are  less  believed  in  now 
than  formerly,  I  trust  God's  miracles  are  believed 
in  more  than  ever. 

I  would  not  undertake  to  say  that  unbelievers 
are  not  at  present  making  more  noise  than  ever 
before  ;  that  this  noise  is  not  more  than  ever 
couched  in  the  tones  and  words  and  formulas  of 
science  ;  that,  on  this  account,  it  is  not  creating 
a  greater  danger  to  faith  than  ever  tried  any  pre- 
ceding age.  All  this  I  sorrowfully  believe.  At 
the  same  time  I  believe  it  would  be  hard  to  show 


COURSE   OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIENCE.       73 

that,  as  yet,  the  proportion  of  unbelievers  in 
the  greatly  enlarged  class  of  scientifically  informed 
men  has  at  all  increased.  Much  harder  still  — 
let  us  say  impossible  —  would  it  be  to  show  that 
among  those  men  of  this  class  to  whom  such 
words  as  conscience  and  duty  and  virtue  are  not 
mere  empty  names,  faith  in  God,  and  in  His  direct 
action  in  Nature,  has  grown  less  as  science  has 
advanced.  I  am  confident  it  cannot  be  shown. 
But  suppose  it  can.  Suppose  it  true  that  the  field 
of  the  supernatural  has  gradually  narrowed  with 
even  this  class  of  persons  during  the  very  short, 
and  in  many  respects  crude,  time  which  has 
elapsed  since  science  began.  What  then  ?  Do 
not  men,  on  first  receiving  sight,  sometimes  see 
men  as  trees  walking  ?  Is  not  the  faint  and  un- 
steady twilight  of  the  morning,  especially  to  eyes 
just  opened  from  sleep,  often  fruitful  in  mistakes  ? 
Even  truth  has  its  unaccountable  ebbs.  Even 
virtue  has  its  surprising  backslidings.  Even  the 
stars  occasionally  strangely  retrograde,  or  seem  to 
do  so.  And  why  may  not  Theism,  though  as  true 
as  truth  and  virtue  and  the  stars,  sometimes  go 
strangely  backward  ?  It  may  have  done  so,  and 
still  there  be  no  warrant  for  the  act  in  the  discov- 
eries which  the  age  has  made.     What  has  come 


74  THIRD  LECTURE. 

to  be  believed  in  the  disturbed  and  flickering  be- 
ginnings of  science  is  one  thing ;  what  has  actu- 
ally been  shown  worthy  of  belief  is  another. 
Every  philosopher  knows,  or  ought  to  know,  that 
those  men  say  truly  who  say  that  science,  with 
all  its  achievements,  has  never  yet  succeeded  in 
distinctly  tracing  anything  whatever  to  mere  mat- 
ter as  its  efficient  cause.  Indeed,  it  has  not  yet 
been  able  to  show  that  force  ever  belongs  to  mere 
matter  at  all.  The  most  it  has  done  in  this  direc- 
tion has  been  to  trace  phenomena  to  some  force 
intimately  associated  with,  and  conditioned  on, 
certain  forms  of  matter  ;  but  that  this  force  comes 
from  the  essential  nature  of  matter,  instead  of 
coming  directly  from  a  Divine  source,  it  does  not 
show.  In  no  single  instance  has  science  gone  so 
far.  It  is  speculation,  and  not  science,  that  pre- 
tends to  that  remote  feat. 

So  much  for  the  unsoundness  of  the  premises 
in  the  argument  from  the  course  of  scientific  ex- 
perience. But  what  I  would  lay  most  stress  upon 
is  that  the  premises,  if  sound,  would  not  support 
the  conclusion.  Does  it  follow  from  the  fact  that 
an  agent  does  some  things,  and  is  gradually  found 
doing  more  things  than  was  first  supposed — does 
it  follow  that  this  agent  does  all  things,  and  es- 


COURSE   OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIENCE.       75 

pecially  things  of  a  vastly  higher  grade  than  any 
it  has  ever  actually  been  found  doing  ?  That  were 
a  wonderful  style  of  logic.  The  Hebrews  say  that 
Moses  had  under  him  many  officers  to  issue  all 
the  smaller  matters  of  government,  while  the 
greater  matters  were  issued  by  himself  in  person. 
How  widely  the  man  would  have  erred,  who,  on 
finding  case  after  case  of  those  secondary  agen- 
cies, should  have  allowed  himself  to  conclude  that 
there  were  no  others  throughout  all  the  pilgrim 
host  of  Israel ;  that  the  great  lawgiver  himself 
never  appeared  with  his  own  personal  forces  in 
any  part  of  the  administration,  however  exalted 
and  important ! 

Take  another  example.  A  child  comes  to  hear 
of  the  first  Napoleon.  For  a  time  he  very  natu- 
rally imagines  that  all  the  things  which  he  finds 
ascribed  to  that  sovereign  in  a  general  way,  were 
done  by  him  personally.  By  degrees,  as  his 
knowledge  improves,  he  becomes  aware  that 
many  of  these  things,  even  some  that  were  quite 
conspicuous,  were  proximately  done  by  subordi- 
nates —  by  cabinet  ministers,  by  marshals,  by 
officers  of  many  lower  grades,  by  mere  privates. 
Now  if  one  should  bid  this  child,  on  the  strength 
of  such    an    experience,   leap   to    the   conclusion 


76  THIRD   LECTURE. 

that  Napoleon  was  a  mere  cipher  ;  that  he  did 
nothing  whatever  in  his  own  proper  person  to- 
ward the  administration  of  public  affairs ;  that 
those  subalterns  of  his  issued  absolutely  every 
matter,  up  to  the  greatest  and  gravest  —  would 
it  not  be  a  most  absurd  proceeding?  Logic 
would  laugh  at  such  a  logician.  The  facts  would 
laugh  at  him.  Why,  Napoleon  was  a  miracle 
of  personal  labor.  Though  doing  many  things 
by  others,  he  reserved  to  himself  a  certain  high 
grade  of  agency  to  which  he  alone  was  com- 
petent. On  this  he  daily  poured  out  imperial 
force  and  genius.  With  his  own  hand  he  drafted 
the  Code  Napoleon.  With  his  own  hand  he  dia- 
gramed battles  and  treaties.  With  his  own  hand 
he  signed  great  warrants  of  pardon,  or  death,  or 
nobility.  Not  only  did  he  personally  issue  all  the 
higher  affairs  of  his  empire,  but,  in  point  of  fact, 
all  those  much-doing  proxies  were  vitalized,  in 
what  they  seemed  to  do  of  themselves,  by  his 
magnetic  intelligence  and  force  that  throbbed 
away  perpetually  to  the  very  extremities  of  the 
monarchy. 

Why  may  it  not  be  so  with  God  ?  What  is  to 
hinder  us  from  supposing  that  He,  too,  has  His 
special  plane  of  agency  ;    that,  above  that  plane 


COURSE   OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIENCE.        J -J 

on  which  second  causes  are  found  fulfilling  their 
mission,  there  is  another  which  the  Lawgiver  of 
lawgivers  and  the  Emperor  of  emperors  has  re- 
served exclusively  to  Himself,  where  He  works 
alone,  in  His  own  proper  person,  the  surpassing 
feats  of  natural  mechanics,  celestial  and  terrestrial, 
and  from  whence  He  pours  down  on  all  the  wheels 
of  Nature  the  immense  volume  and  gravity  and 
propulsion  of  His  supreme  will  ?  I  say,  what  is  to 
hinder  ?  Would  it  be  so  very  strange  if  He,  too, 
with  His  glorious  fund  of  agency,  should  refuse  to 
be  next  to  eternally  idle — if  He,  too,  with  His  glo- 
rious versatility  of  powers,  should  choose  to  have 
the  ranere  of  two  modes  of  causation  instead  of  one 

o 

mode  —  if  He,  too,  with  such  a  glorious  round  of 
empire,  should  have  occasion  for  things  too  great 
to  be  done  by  subaltern  atoms,  or  too  great  to  be 
done  sufficiently  well  by  them  —  if  He,  too,  most 
important  to  be  known  and  with  glorious  claims 
to  admiration  and  love,  should  object  to  being 
practically  lost  in  an  abyss  of  proxyship  ;  to  be 
hidden  at  every  point  behind  a  tangled  thicket,  if 
not  a  dead  wall,  of  second  causes  ;  to  be  every- 
where separated  from  the  thoughts  and  feelings 
and  realization  of  His  subjects  by  a  chain  of  se- 
quences stretching   across  the  whole  breadth  of 


7 8  THIRD   LECTURE. 

Nature  and  of  inexpressible  chronologies,  that  is 
to  say,  across  that  most  bewildering  interval  sup- 
posed to  lie  between  yonder  fire  mist  and  this 
fully  equipt  solar  system  populous  with  Newtons 
and  Paradises  ;  nay,  perhaps  across  an  indefinite 
succession  of  such  monster  intervals,  each  of 
which  might  defy  the  mightiest  computing  mathe- 
matics ? 

Would  it  be  so  very  strange  ?  I  think  not. 
On  the  contrary,  I  claim  that  nothing  would  be 
more  natural.  For  the  universe's  sake,  if  for  no 
other,  God  would  be  likely  to  disrelish  being  so 
thrust  into  the  background  of  the  picture,  so 
dwarfed  in  the  long  perspective  of  mediators,  so 
dimmed  and  wasted  on  human  sight  by  innumera- 
ble reflections  from  innumerable  planes  of  causa- 
tion. He  would  be  likely  to  disrelish  having  our 
thoughts  obliged  to  travel  such  tiresome  and  ex- 
hausting distances  in  order  to  reach  Him ;  and 
then,  on  that  bleakest  and  dimmest  outpost  of  be- 
ing, lift  up  faint  and  bewildered  eyes  on  a  Majesty 
whose  chiefest  glories  are  necessarily  hid  in  twi- 
lights and  clouds  to  such  jaded,  benumbed,  and 
almost  swooning  faculties. 

So  what  sort  of  logic  is  it  that  infers  from  the 
fact  that  God  does  many  things  by  atomic  forces, 


COURSE   OF  SCIENTIFIC  EXPERIENCE.        79 

that  He  never  does  anything  directly  by  Him- 
self? Worse  inferring  could  hardly  be  found.  I 
particularly  beg  that  it  may  not  be  called  scien- 
tific. It  is  equally  against  plainest  and  countless 
facts,  and  against  the  inherent  probabilities  of 
the  case.  Men  are  everywhere  found  combining 
the  direct  and  indirect  modes  of  causation  ;  are 
everywhere  finding  it  extremely  serviceable  to  do 
so ;  are  everywhere  able  to  see  that  doing  so  is 
equally  suited  to  their  natures  and  their  interests. 
Else  they  would  be  wretched.  Else  they  would 
wretchedly  sacrifice  themselves.  Else  one  half 
would  be  subtracted  from  the  meaning  and  use- 
fulness of  their  lives.  And  why  may  it  not  be  so 
with  God  ?  Do  not  be  so  unscientific  as  to  as- 
sume that  He  is  an  exception.  If  you  must  as- 
sume at  all,  let  your  assumption  be  in  accordance 
with  experience,  and  not  in  opposition  to  it.  Es- 
pecially in  view  of  the  admitted  immeasurable 
aptitude  of  a  Divine  Nature  for  all  modes  of  caus- 
ation ;  of  the  universal  and  immemorial  tradition 
that  He  uses  all ;  and  of  the  obvious  moral  disad- 
vantage of  His  propagating  Himself  on  our  notice 
solely  through  an  endless  series  of  ever-weakening 
undulations  —  the  obvious  moral  disadvantage  of 
His  always  dealing  with  us  at  arm's  length,  from 


80  THIRD  LECTURE. 

more  than  telescopic  distances,  from  the  furthest 
extremity  of  a  wand,  however  magical,  that  crosses 
the  terrible  breadth  of  all  our  Geologies  and  As- 
tionomies. 


IV. 
CONFLICT  WITH   ONTOLOGY. 

Be'/Yriov  ovv   tov   fxlv    koct/x.w   vtto   Beau  yeyovivat  Xiyziv 
kcll  aSeu:  —  Plutarch. 

Quaerit  Socrates,  uncle  animam  arripuerimus,  si  nulla 
fuerit  in  mundo  ?  —  Cicero. 

Kcu   eXoLTTOv   he   ka.VTOV  yevia. — PlotitlUS. 


IV.  Conflict  with  Ontology. 

i.  AN   ILLUSTRATION 83 

2.  COMBINATION   NO  CREATOR .'91 

3.  NO   EQUAL   FROM    EQUAL 95 

4.  NO  LIKE  FROM   LIKE 97 


FOURTH  LECTURE. 


I 


CONFLICT   WITH    ONTOLOGY. 

HAVE  now  examined  the  three  leading  argu- 
ments of  the  friends  of  evolution.  It  seems 
to  me  that  they  are  very  much  such  arguments 
as  might  be  brought,  with  equal  or  greater  pro- 
priety, to  encourage  a  belief  in  the  spontaneous 
origin  of  the  Giant  Cities  of  Bashan. 

No  living  man  ever  saw  those  cities  being  built 
by  human  hands.  We  know  of  no  chain  of  tes- 
timony that  can  carry  us  back  to  such  an  event. 
And  yet,  not  a  person,  not  even  the  evolutionist, 
doubts  that  those  silent  structures  all  came  from 
the  labor  and  skill  of  intelligent  beings.  We 
would  not  listen  for  a  moment  to  any  other  ex- 
planation of  them.  And  yet  one  could  talk 
against  that  universal  conviction  and  sure  knowl- 
edge, almost  exactly  as  we  have  just  heard  men 
talking  against  the  supernatural  origin  of  plants 
and  animals  and  astronomical  systems. 


84  FOURTH  LECTURE. 

Hear  him.  "The  old  traditional  notion,"  says 
he,  "  about  these  cities  is  altogether  at  fault. 
They  are,  indeed,  very  remarkable  structures  — 
the  great  rocky  blocks  are  fairly  squared  and  fit- 
ted and  piled  into  very  architectural  forms,  as  if 
for  human  use  —  and  yet  my  idea  is  that  they 
really  came  in  a  gradual  way,  one  out  of  another, 
by  the  spontaneous  action  of  forces  belonging  to 
the  atoms  which  compose  them.  Do  not  laugh, 
but  listen.  Perhaps  you  will  not  think  the  opin- 
ion so  very  ridiculous,  when  you  have  heard  my 
reasons  for  it.  Just  look  at  the  countless  minute 
cells  (simplest  of  dwellings)  that  are  constantly 
being  formed  in  a  natural  way  :  at  the  countless 
crystals  that  are  ever  building  themselves  up  in 
the  primary  geometrical  figures :  at  the  many 
natural  grottoes,  small  and  great,  furnished  almost 
like  palaces,  with  suites  of  apartments  and  col- 
umns and  tables  and  vases  and  thrones  :  at  the 
shapes  which  the  very  clouds  take  in  imitation 
of  the  more  solid  castles  and  cathedrals  below  : 
at  the  rocks  and  hills  in  mountainous  districts, 
piling  themselves  into  fortresses,  amphitheaters, 
domes,  towers,  buttresses,  battlements,  and  almost 
everything  the  architect  deals  in :  in  fine,  at 
those  many  living  organisms,  very  small  indeed, 


AN  ILLUSTRATION.  85 

but  more  elaborate  by  far  than  the  best  rock-city 
of  Bashan,  and  which  seem  to  swarm  into  being 
of  themselves  under  the  careful  experiments  of 
naturalists  !  These  things  are  very  suggestive. 
I  regard  them  as  so  many  examples  of  what  unin- 
telligent Nature  can  do  in  the  way  of  developing 
architecture." 

Then  this  ingenious  philosopher,  warming  with 
his  subject,  goes  on  to  exclaim  :  "  Now  look  at 
those  Bashan  cities  !  See  the  gradation  among 
them,  and  among  the  structures  composing  them  ! 
Some  are  vast,  complex,  carefully  wrought.  Oth- 
ers are  small,  simple,  and  left  very  much  in  the 
rough.  Still  others  are  so  rude  in  form  and  ar- 
rangement as  to  raise  the  question  whether  they 
are  structural  at  all.  Between  these  are  many 
grades,  from  a  palace  for  a  king  to  a  hut  for  a 
coney.  Notice,  further,  that  the  higher  grades, 
apparently,  are  of  later  date  than  the  others  —  are 
less  weather-stained,  are  less  sunk  in  the  soil,  are 
nearer  the  edge  of  the  desert  where  the  forces  of 
Nature  seem  most  active  and  powerful.  Visit 
Bozrah  and  Edrei,  and  see." 

"  And  I  wish  you  to  notice,  also,  a  process  of 
variation  in  such  structures.  To  lay  no  stress  on 
the  changes  made  by  time  in  those  ancient  rock- 


86  FOURTH  LECTURE. 

cities  themselves  —  for  example,  in  softening  their 
outline,  improving  their  color,  wearing  off  here 
and  there  an  objectionable  feature,  sometimes 
taking  completely  down  parts  that  disfigure  —  to 
lay  no  stress  on  these,  look  at  the  great  changes, 
which,  wholly  apart  from  intelligent  agency,  some- 
times take  place  in  limestone  caverns  in  a  few 
years.  Ten  years  will  bring  about  a  change 
nearly  as  marvelous  as  the  original  glory  of  that 
subterranean  palace.  A  new  order  of  architect- 
ure appears.  The  rocky  furniture  has  been 
changed  almost  as  completely  as  if  that  cave  were 
some  temple  of  fashion.  Even  the  shape  and 
size  of  the  apartments  have  altered.  And  all 
without  any  human  help.  But  if  you  choose  to 
take  a  little  pains  while  some  processes  of  crys- 
tallization are  going  forward,  you  can  determine 
to  a  great  extent  the  arrangement  of  the  crystals 
with  respect  to  each  other,  and  even  pile  them 
up  in  about  as  many  different  architectural  forms 
as  you  please  —  as  many  as  are  shown  in  the 
various  buildings  made  by  man,  and  almost  as 
easily  as  we  change  the  symmetrical  combina- 
tions of  the  kaleidoscope." 

"And  you  must  not  overlook  the  vein  of  resem- 
blance running   through   all   those   structures  in 


AN  ILLUSTRATION.  87 

Argob.  There  is  everywhere  a  family  likeness. 
Everywhere  stone,  everywhere  basalt,  every- 
where squared  blocks,  everywhere  Cyclopean 
blocks  in  Cyclopean  walls  without  cement,  every- 
where the  doors  and  gates  and  horizontal  roofs 
of  rocky  slabs.  This  most  perfect  city  of  all  looks 
as  much  like  yon  neighbor  city  which  Porter  sees 
with  his  glass,  as  a  man  looks  like  an  ape  ;  and 
yet  is  not  wholly  unlike  the  unwalled  hamlet  of 
a  dozen  small  stone  huts  that  show  between. 
You  can,  if  your  eyes  are  good,  see  in  each  edi- 
fice some  rudimental  feature  and  prophecy  of  the 
one  next  higher :  and,  if  your  eyes  are  not  good, 
you  can  find  many  things  about  those  lonely  piles 
that  seem  to  you  obscure,  useless,  and  deformed. 
And  I  have  no  doubt  that,  if  you  could  watch  the 
development  of  the  architectural  idea  from  its 
simplest  beginning  in  the  mind  of  a  child  till  his 
mature  life,  you  would  find  the  same  succession 
of  stages  as  is  found  in  those  cities,  traditionally, 
but  fabulously,  ascribed  to  Moabite  giants  of  four 
thousand  years  ago." 

"  In  short,  all  is  just  as  it  would  have  been  if 
one  city  had  grown  out  of  another,  and  all  out  of 
the  basaltic  atoms  by  merely  basaltic  forces  and 
laws.     If  you  say  that  no  such  growth  has   been 


88  FOURTH  LECTURE. 

observed  in  Bashan,  I  answer  that  it  takes  a  won- 
derfully long  time  for  Nature  to  do  such  work, 
and  that  the  time  during  which  Bashan  has  been 
watched  is  a  mere  nothing.  If  you  say  that  there 
are  gaps  in  the  chain  of  likeness  and  sequence 
that  connects  these  structures,  and  inquire  for 
the  transitional  forms  which  the  theory  of  devel- 
opment supposes,  my  sufficient  answer  is,  that 
they  have  been  swallowed  up  by  the  vandalisms 
of  unlimited  time  ;  and  that  the  wonder  is,  not 
that  some  links  of  the  chain  have  been  swallowed 
up,  but  .that  any  remain.  Is  not  this  enough  ? 
See  you  not  how  easily  objections  are  met,  and 
how  strongly  my  theory  of  development  for  Ba- 
shan agrees  with  observed  fact  ?  " 

But  then  our  ingenious  philosopher  suddenly 
remembers  that  there  is  something  still  better  to 
be  said  before  closing  the  case  :  and  his  voice 
waxes  very  confident  as  he  begins  to  tell  about 
the  course  of  scientific  experience.  "  Who  does  not 
know  that  in  earliest  times  almost  all  remarkable 
things  were  supposed  due  to  intelligent  agency  ? 
As  knowledge  has  advanced,  more  and  more  of 
these  things  have  been  traced  to  unintelligent 
forces  and  laws.  So  the  experience  of  the  race  is 
ever  pressing  us  toward   the    point    of  believing 


AN  ILLUSTRATION.  89 

that  such  forces  and  laws  are  the  source  of  those 
very  remarkable  cities.  I  choose  to  go  at  once 
to  the  point  where  all  must  finally  come.  Bashan 
was  developed.  Its  cities  are  crystals.  Who  says 
that  hammer  and  chisel,  and  straining  muscle  of 
man,  set  up  Kenath  and  Kerioth  and  Keires  and 
their  threescore  fellows  ?  They  are  stony  Law 
Schemes.  They  came  forth  spontaneously  from 
the  blind  womb  of  motherly  Nature  ;  and  were 
evolved  by  little  and  little,  through  crevice  and 
chasm  and  cave  and  geode  and  cabin,  into  Cy- 
clopean castles  and  palaces." 

Thus,  at  length,  our  ingenious  philosopher 
makes  an  end.  And  he  looks  about  on  his  audi- 
ence to  see  what  impression  his  subtle  eloquence 
has  made  on  them.  To  his  amazement  he  finds 
every  face  ablaze  with  laughter — or  with  impa- 
tience. Nobody  deigns  him  a  reply.  And  his 
hearers  scatter  to  their  homes,  as  firmly  con- 
vinced as  ever  that  the  Giant  Cities  of  Bashan 
rose  under  the  hands  of  contriving  beings  ;  and 
better  convinced  than  ever  of  the  "  beauties  of 
scientific  speculation." 

Of  just  as  little  weight  are  similar  arguments 
when  brought  in  support  of  the  spontaneous  ori- 
gin of  those  flying  cities  of  the  sky  which  we  call 


90  FOURTH  LECTURE. 

astronomical  systems,  or  of  those  walking  cities 
of  flesh  and  blood  which  we  call  men,  or  of  those 
still  greater  thinking  cities  within  us,  which  both 
walk  and  fly,  and  which  we  call  souls. 

I  come  now  to  the  positive  side  of  the  argu- 
ment. I  propose  to  show  that  the  Doctrine  of 
*  Evolution  is  inadequate  to  explain  Nature,  by 
showing  that  it  is  in  conflict  with  several  sci- 
ences, and  with  each  of  these  at  several  points. 
We  have  only  to  open  our  ears  to  such  witnesses 
as  Ontology  and  Geology  and  Astronomy  and  the 
Science  of  Probabilities,  to  hear  from  each  many 
an  emphatic  denial  of  the  only  scheme  which  in 
these  days  tries  to  explain  Nature  without  a  God. 
And  you  should  bear  in  mind  that,  in  such  a  case, 
each  of  these  denials  —  each  distinct  scientific  fact 
found  in  conflict  with  the  Hypothesis  of  Evolu- 
tion—  becomes  an  independent  theistic  argument. 
If  we  find  three  such  ontological  facts,  and  three- 
score such  geological  facts,  and  three  hundred 
such  facts  astronomical,  we  have  three  hun- 
dred and  threescore  and  three  distinct  arguments 
of  scientific  authority  for  the  being  of  a  God. 
Nay,  the  case  is  stronger  than  this.  As  we  add 
the  facts,  we  multiply  the  argument. 


COMBINATION  NO    CREATOR.  91 

The  Conflict  with  Ontology. 

However  lightly  one  may  think  of  many  specu- 
lations which  profess  to  sound  the  depths  of  Be- 
ing, and  to  bring  to  light  its  fundamental  condi- 
tions, it  cannot  be  denied  that  some  such  condi- 
tions do  exist,  have  become  known,  and  are  of  so 
clear  and  generic  a  character  as  to  deserve  to  be 
called  scientific.  Among  these  conditions  I  sup- 
pose to  be  the  following. 

1 .  No  being  can  reproduce  itself  in  kind. 

2.  No  being  can  produce  its  ozvn  equal,  much 
less  its  superior. 

3.  No  mere  combination  of  beings  can  produce 
essentially  new  properties  ;  tJie  properties  resulting 
must  be  properties,  or  modifications  of  properties, 
already  possessed  by  the  constituent  beings. 

Let  us  consider  this  last  principle  first.  The 
Law  Hypothesis  aims  to  deduce  mind  from  blind 
matter.  It  supposes  that  the  ultimate  atoms  of 
which  the  most  intelligent  men  are  composed,  are 
quite  without  thought,  will,  and  feeling.  These 
attributes  mysteriously  appear  as  the  result  of 
certain  combinations  of  atoms,  which  in  them- 
selves are  utterly  unconscious,  involuntary,  and 
insensible.  Such  is  the  assumption.  And  neces- 
sarily.    For  no  scheme  of  this  sort  can  face  sci- 


92  FOURTH  LECTURE. 

entific  men,  save  with  an  offer  to  account  for  Na- 
ture by  means  of  things  known  to  exist,  namely, 
matter  with  only  such  properties  as  our  physical 
sciences    recognize    matter   as    possessing.     Be- 
sides, it  will  not  do  to  claim,  in  opposition  to  con- 
sciousness, that  the  human  mind  is  multiple  —  a 
congeries  of  many  separate  consciousnesses,  in- 
tellects, wills,  sensibilities.     Still  less  will  it  do  to 
admit  a  host  of  eternal  thinkers  and  souls  of  even 
a  very  low  grade.  '  An  eternal  intelligence  were 
approaching  a  God  too  nearly.     So  an   atheistic 
Law  Scheme    is    under  the    necessity  of  getting 
everything  organic  and  mental  out  of  such  atoms 
as  figure  in  the  natural  sciences  ;  atoms  with  only 
mechanical    and    chemical    and  such  properties  ; 
atoms    altogether   without  such  properties  as  we 
call    mental    and    spiritual.     Our   human    minds 
must  come  from  the  mere  combination  of  atoms 
which  themselves  neither  think,  nor  feel,  nor  will. 
To  this  doctrine  the  answer  is  easy.     No  possible 
way  of  combining  atoms  can  generate  essentially 
new  properties.     The  utmost  it  can  do  is  to  mod- 
ify properties  already  possessed.     It  can  intensify, 
abate,  neutralize  ;  that  is  all.     Of  course  it  must 
be  so.     You  cannot  get  out  of  things  what  is  not 
in  them.     Arrangement  cannot  by  any  possibility 


COMBINATION  NO   CREATOR.  93 

become  a  Creator.  No  chess-playing  with  posi- 
tions, mixtures,  combinations  ;  no  conjuring  with 
distances,  bearings,  proportions,  attitudes,  times, 
can  start  into  being  a  property  essentially  differ- 
ent from  any  to  be  found  in  the  constituent 
atoms. 

It  is  true  that  chemical  combinations  are  some- 
times said  to  originate  new  properties.  But  we 
do  not  mean  properties  essentially  new.  We  only 
mean  something  remarkably  different  in  expres- 
sion from  the  old  properties,  though  still  of  the 
same  essential  nature,  and  perfectly  conceivable 
as  resulting  from  the  counteractions  and  coac- 
tions  of  the  old  among  themselves.  Thus  the 
traits  of  common  air  are  perfectly  conceivable  as 
resulting  from  the  agreements  and  antagonisms 
of  oxygen  and  nitrogen,  though  in  aspect  and 
effects  the  compound  is  largely  unlike  either  con- 
stituent. So  in  other  cases.  Two  forces  inclined 
to  each  other  give  a  diagonal  between  them  —  this 
principle,  with  its  implications,  expresses  all  we 
find  in  Chemistry  as  well  as  in  Mechanics.  But 
such  things  as  thought,  feeling,  choice,  are  not 
sums,  differences,  diagonals,  of  the  material. 
They  are  essentially  different  from  the  gravities 
and  attractions,  from  the  mechanical  and  chemi- 


94  FOURTH  LECTURE. 

cal  attributes  with  which  we  are  familiar.  They 
differ  in  conception,  they  differ  in  the  laws  which 
govern  them,  they  differ  in  effects,  they  differ  in 
the  means  by  which  they  are  known  ;  they 
differ  according  to  that  overwhelming  verdict  of 
mankind  in  all  ages  and  countries  which  has 
always  broadly  distinguished  between  body  and 
soul,  matter  and  spirit. 

Pray,  how  do  we  know  that  any  things  differ  in 
kind  from  each  other  ?     Are  we  ever  warranted 
in  saying  that  things  are  totally  unlike  ?     People 
do  not  hesitate  to  believe  in  differences ;  they  feel 
confident  that  such  things  as  extension  and  color 
and  hardness    differ   radically  from    each   other  ; 
and  yet  it  is  quite  without  warrant  that   they  do 
so  if  there  is  not  a  great  and  insuperable  chasm 
between  thought  and  such  properties  of  matter  as 
the    natural    sciences    concern    themselves   with. 
For  one,  I  am  not  yet  willing  to  quit  my  hold  on 
the  very  foundations  of  knowledge.     I  must  still 
continue    to   flatter    myself    that    I    know   some 
things  ;    and,    among    these,    that   spiritual    and 
material    properties    are   mutually   inconvertible. 
They  cannot  be  developed  or  tortured  out  of  each 
other.     As  much  even  can  be  said  of  the  funda- 
mental properties  of  matter.     How  can  one  get 


NO  EQUAL  FROM  EQUAL.  95 

extension  out  of  gravity,  or  gravity  out  of  color  ? 
Much  less  can  one  get  choice  out  of  either  or  all 
of  such  material  attributes.  They  are  essentially 
and  totally  different  things.  Really,  the  man  who 
does  not  see  this  to  begin  with,  will  not  see  it  to 
end  with.  How  can  argument  help  the  man  who 
does  not  perceive  the  difference  between  exten- 
sion and  color  ?  As  little  will  it  help  the  man 
who  does  not  at  once  perceive  the  difference  be- 
tween extension  and  thought.  Such  differences, 
if  they  appear  at  all,  appear  as  intuitions.  At 
sight  we  recognize  opposite  poles  of  being  in  the 
material  and  spiritual.  They  have  nothing  in 
common  ;  unless  such  a  hopeless  chasm  between 
them  as  divides  the  stars  be  reckoned  a  common 
possession.  And  so,  no  mere  combination  of 
atoms,  though  the  choicest  and  most  dynamical 
of  all  ;  no  mere  play  among  themselves  of  deftly 
arranged  chemistries  and  mechanics,  though  as 
subtle  and  forceful  as  ever  boiled  in  crucible  or 
thundered  from  engine,  could  begin  to  convert 
blind  matter  into  an  intelligent  and  voluntary  be- 
ing. There  are  present  no  materials  out  of  which 
to  make  him. 

Observe  also  that  it  is  an  essential  part  of  the 
Law    Hypothesis,   that    ordinary  parentage   fully 


96  FOURTH  LECTURE. 

explains  the  continuance  of  races.  Sandwiched 
in  everywhere  with  the  notions  of  spontaneous 
generation  and  transmutation  of  species,  is  the 
quiet  and  yet  —  when  one  comes  fairly  to  think 
of  it  —  the  astounding  assumption,  that  there  is 
not  the  slightest  difficulty  in  each  sort  of  plant  or 
animal  producing  the  equal  of  itself.  As  if  even 
a  God  could  produce  his  own  equal !  Outside 
of  the  field  now  being  considered,  who  ever  knew 
a  cause  make  something  of  the  same  grade  with 
itself  ?  The  beaver  is  -  vastly  superior  to  the 
dwelling  it  builds,  the  bee  to  its  cells,  the  bird  to 
its  nest,  the  spider  to  its  web.  Among  the  vari- 
ous machines  made  by  man,  not  one  but  is  vastly 
inferior  to  his  body,  though  that  is  largely  aided 
in  its  work  by  the  contriving  mind  ;  and  the 
products  of  these  machines  —  say  the  sewing  and 
•  pin  machines  —  are  always  vastly  inferior  to  the 
machines  themselves.  And,  from  the  nature  of 
the  case,  it  must  be  so.  Reverently  be  it  said, 
not  even  Almightiness  can  make  a  man  that  is 
able  to  turn  out  an  organism  as  admirable  as 
himself,  or  even  anything  of  the  same  order  of 
admirableness.  It  is  a  pure  impossibility  in  the 
nature  of  things.  The  fountain  always  does  and 
must  have  a  higher  level  than  its   stream  —  the 


NO  LIKE  FROM  LIKE.  97 

producer  always  does  and  must  tower  loftily 
above  his  product  —  and  human  beings  neither 
do  nor  can  make  any  approach  toward  producing 
those  wonderful  children  of  theirs  who  are  their 
equals,  and  sometimes  their  superiors.  Children 
are  sometimes,  both  physically  and  mentally, 
greatly  the  superiors  of  their  parents.  What  a 
poor  explanation  do  their  parents  give  of  such 
offspring  as  Milton,  and  Newton,  and  Pascal  ? 
No,  the  only  sufficient  explanation  of  such  per- 
sons is  found,  not  in  the  parents  who  reverently 
looked  up  to  them  from  a  much  lower  plane,  but 
in  some  Being  who  looked  down  on  them  from 
that  vastly  higher  plane  whence  even  their  great- 
ness seemed  as  the  littleness  of  grasshoppers. 

But  the  Law  Hypothesis  does  more  than  claim 
that  the  organic  races  produce  their  peers  and 
even  superiors.  It  claims  that  these  races  re- 
produce themselves,  in  kind  ;  that  they  originate 
beings,  not  only  of  equal  nature,  but  of  precisely 
the  same  sort  of  nature.  As  if  even  a  God  could 
make  a  God  !  As  if  even  Almightiness  could 
make  a  watch  that  is  able  of  itself  to  make 
another  watch,  or  to  do  anything  toward  such  a 
feat !  Can  any  power  get  four  out  of  two  ?  Sup- 
pose an  organism  composed  of  a  pin  machine 
7 


98  fourth  lecture. 

and  a  machine  for  making  pin    machines.     Can 
such  a  thing,  by  any  manner  of  means,  reproduce 
its  own  sort,  or   do    anything  whatever    in    that 
direction  ?     The  pin  machine  can  turn  out  pins, 
and  the  machine  for  making    pin  machines    can 
turn    out  pin  machines  —  at  least  with  a  plenty 
of  aid  from  watching  and    manipulating   men  — 
but   there    is    absolutely  nothing   left   to  do  the 
least    thing   toward  a   maker   of  pin    machines  ; 
which  last  is  vastly  the  most  intricate  and  mar- 
velous  part  of  the  original  organism.     For,  pins 
are  vastly  less  wonderful  than  the  machine  that 
makes  them,  and  a  pin  machine  vastly  less  won- 
derful than  a  maker  of  pin  machines.     Thus  an 
animal    composed    of    a   given    organism    and    a 
system  of  means  for  reproducing  the    organism 
in  kind,  cannot  reproduce  its  whole  self,  but  nec- 
essarily leaves  unproduced,  even  in  part,  what  is 
by  far   the   most    surprising   part    of  the    whole 
structure,  namely,  its  reproducing  system.     And 
this,  whether  the  original  structure  act  mechani- 
cally, or  chemically,  or  in  any  other  way.  It  can- 
not do  the  least  thing    toward    reproducing    the 
perfect  like,  in  kind,  of  itself;  which  self  is  not 
the   organism,  nor   the   system    for    reproducing 
that,  but  the  sum  of  the  two.     So  in  no  case  can 
a  plant  or  animal  reproduce  itself. 


NO  LIKE   FROM  LIKE.  99 

Plainly,  the  matter  is  not  helped  by  supposing 
two  similar  organisms  to  be  concerned  in  the 
reproduction.  That  to  which  neither  can  con- 
tribute the  least  thing,  cannot  be  made  by  both. 
So  parents  are  no  sufficient  explanation  of  their 
offspring.  These  new  beings  which  are  contin- 
ually appearing  about  us  in  immense  numbers, 
and  of  the  highest  structural  grades  —  these  won- 
derful human  beings,  for  example  —  need  to  be 
accounted  for  independently  of  their,  fathers  and 
mothers,  as  much  as  if  they  were  so  many  Adams 
newly  sprung  on  the  world  without  any  visible 
means.  Ordinary  parentage  does  absolutely  noth- 
ing toward  accounting  for  them.  And  this  in 
whatever  way  parentage  may  be  supposed  to  act. 
Call  it  chemical,  electric,  physiological,  mechan- 
ical, all  of  these  together,  it  makes  no  difference. 
What  the  argument  objects  to  is  the  thing  to  be 
done,  not  some  particular  mode  of  doing  it.  It 
objects  to  a  thing  producing  its  greater,  or  even 
its  equal,  by  any  mode.  It  objects  to  a  thing  be- 
getting its  like  in  any  conceivable  way  of  action. 

The  parental  forces,  in  whatever  way  acting, 
are,  at  best,  of  only  the  same  order  with  those 
generated  :  in  whatever  way  acting,  they  can 
include  nothing  that  tends  in  the  least  to  produce 
a  new  system  of  reproduction. 


100  FOURTH  LECTURE. 

So  the  forces  and  laws  included  in  parents  do 
nothing  toward  accounting  for  their  offspring. 
And  so  the  Law  Hypothesis,  which  offers  noth- 
ing but  parentage  in  explanation,  does  nothing 
toward  accounting  for  them.  And  it  can  offer 
nothing  better.  Suppose  it  should  say  that  the 
generating  forces  and  laws  are  partly  from  with- 
out the  parents,  and  yet  are  purely  material. 
Then,  I  answer  that  this  eternal  something  must 
be  incalculably  superior  to  its  product  ;  in  fact, 
of  quite  another  order  of  being.  But  what  is  the 
order  that  rises  incalculably  above  Blaise  Pascal  ? 
Are  there  any  unintelligent,  involuntary  forces 
known  to  us  in  the  whole  round  of  Nature  that 
can  look  down,  as  from  the  stars,  on  such  a  Sub- 
lime Soul  ?  Can  any  blind  chemicals  do  it  ? 
Can  any  blind  electricities,  or  gravities,  or  com- 
pounds of  such  things  do  it  ?  What  can  do  it 
save  a  vast  Personal  Being,  with  oceanic  intelli- 
gence and  will  ?  Where  can  be  the  source  of 
such  swift  streams  but  above  the  clouds  ?  Doubt- 
less from  above  the  clouds  they  come  —  from 
higher  than  thy  cloud-capped  summits,  great 
Andes,  and  thy  dazzling  white  crown  of  eternal 
snows,  O  highest  Alps  !  "  That  which  planted 
the  ear  shall  it  not  hear,  that  which  formed  the 


iVO  LIKE  FROM  LIKE.  10 1 

eye    shall    it    not    see,  that  which  teacheth  man 
knowledge  shall  not  it  know  ?  " 

To  the  Hebrew  prophet  there  was  but  one 
answer  to  such  questions  as  these.  He  knew  no 
greater  absurdity  than  that  of  making  blind,  deaf, 
and  unintelligent  things  the  fathers  of  mankind. 
No  greater  absurdity  exists.  It  is  of  the  same 
order  with  that  which  proposes  to  get,  in  a  nat- 
ural way,  something  out  of  nothing.  Surely, 
inadequate  Law  Hypothesis  !  Full  surely,  O  in- 
toxicate Law  Scheme  ;  bouleversing  thyself,  and 
then  supposing  the  universe  to  stand  on  its  apex 
instead  of  its  base  !  Most  surely,  O  unnatural 
Naturalism  ;  impossibly  deducing  like  from  like, 
equals  from  equals,  and  even  the  greater  from  the 
less,  and  even  the  greatest  things  in  ail  Nature 
from  that  which  is  next  to  nothing  !  As  surely 
as  that  a  God  cannot  make  a  God,  nothing  in  the 
parental  economy,  or  anywhere  else  on  the  same 
level,  can  be  anything  more  than  the  conditions, 
arteries,  and  tools  through  which  a  Great  Per- 
sonal Force  from  above  pours  along  its  mighty 
reproductive  energies  :  and  that  whole  childhood 
which  perpetually  freshens  the  earth  and  rejuve- 
nates mankind,  must  have  been  begotten  from 
far  above  the  human  plane  ;  say  from  the  "  cir- 


102  FOURTH  LECTURE. 

cuit  of  heaven  "  —  why  not  say  from  that  awful 
Zenith  of  which  we  can  assert,  and  toward  which 
we  can  wonder,  but  whither  neither  sight  nor 
thought  can  climb  ?  There  is  the  spring  of  these 
swift  human  rivers.  Thence  come  our  broad 
Amazons,  fruitful  Niles,  and  arrowy  Rhones. 
Thence  flows  down  the  Parent-Power  upon  all 
the  world.  True  Protozoon  —  infinite,  instead  of 
infinitesimal,  Alpha  of  worlds  and  organisms  — 
intelligent,  voluntary,  personal,  august,  cloud-en- 
veloped Summit  of  all  things  —  we  reverently 
pronounce  before  Thee  that  most  ancient  and 
venerable  of  all  names,  God  ! 


V. 

CONFLICT    WITH     GEOLOGY. 

On  6  ®€os  Tvavra.  TrcrroirjKe  to.  eV  toj  koct/xo),  kcu  clvtov 
tov  Kocrfxov.  —  M.  Antoninus. 

Res  sic  quaeque  suo  ritu  procedit,  et  omnes 
Fcedere  naturae  certo  discrimina  servant. 

Luc?-etius. 


V.   Conflict  with  Geology. 

*.     EACH   AGE   ITS   OWN   SPECIES 105 

2.  NO   PERPENDICULAR   CHAINS                ....  109 

3.  NO   HORIZONTAL   CHAINS 112 

4.  SPECIAL  CHASMS «5 

5.  OBJECTION 127 


FIFTH    LECTURE. 


CONFLICT   WITH    GEOLOGY. 

A  CCORDING  to  the  Development  Scheme,  we 
ought  to  have  in  each  Geologic  Period  all 
the  organic  species  of  preceding  Periods. 

Of  course,  the  protozoa,  or  primitive  organic 
germs,  are  continually  being  showered  on  all  parts 
of  each  Period  ;  and  all  the  lines  of  development 
are  always  beginning  anew.  If  there  is  no  ob- 
struction to  the  progress  of  these  lines  —  if  each 
Period  has  congenial  circumstances  for  them  all, 
and  there  is  free  transit  for  them  all  between  the 
Periods  —  then,  of  course,  each  Period  will  have 
living  in  it  all  the  species  of  the  earlier  Periods, 
and  will  only  differ  from  them  in  having  some  more 
advanced  organisms.  Now,  as  a  matter  of  fact, 
each  Period  had  throughout  congenial  places  for 
receiving  these  germs  and  developing  them  along 
the  several  observed  lines  of  variation.  That  is  to 
say,  at  any  given   time  the  earth   has  had,  some- 


106  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

where,  congenial  habitats  for  all  actual  species  of 
earlier  formations.  For  example,  in  our  own  time, 
there  are  somewhere  on  the  globe  districts  and 
conditions  suited  to  each  known  fossil  species  — 
places  of  all  sorts  as  to  food,  temperature,  moisture, 
air,  light ;  land,  water,  air  ;  marshes,  streams,  seas  ; 
fresh  water,  salt  water,  waters  shallow  and  deep  ; 
tropical,  temperate,  and  arctic  places ;  in  fine, 
places  where  every  organism  known  to  the  paleon- 
tologist could  be  as  much  at  home  as  it  was  in  that 
ancient  site  where  it  actually  lived  and  flourished. 
So  of  all  other  Geologic  Periods  known  to  us  as 
fossiliferous.  There  is  not  one  of  them  through- 
out which  all  the  earlier  species  of  fauna  and  flora 
could  not  have  been  thoroughly  accommodated. 
Hence  there  is  but  one  thing  wanted  _to  secure  the 
presence  in  each  Period  of  all  earlier  organic  spe- 
cies. We  need  free  communication  between  the 
Periods.  We  need  full  opportunity  for  all  the  spe- 
cies to  get  across  those  yawning  convulsions  and 
exterminations  which,  as  some  say,  separate  the 
different  formations.  Now,  according  to  the  De- 
velopment Scheme,  there  have  been  such  oppor- 
tunities in  abundance  —  broad  viaducts  of  safe 
transit  opening  from  all  the  "  homes  and  haunts " 
of  each    Period   into   the   matching    homes   and 


EACH  AGE  ITS  OWN  SPECIES.  \0J 

haunts  of  the  Period  below.  Most  evolutionists 
are  now  disposed  to  claim  that  the  Periods  and 
Eras  were  not  separated  by  destructive  convul- 
sions, but  glided  quietly  into  each  other  :  in  which 
case  there  was  infinite  opportunity  of  transit. 
And,  in  any  case,  see  the  countless  sorts  of  highly 
advanced  and  widely  differing  organisms  now  on 
the  earth  !  All  these,  according  to  the  Develop- 
ment Scheme,  came  safely  across  whole  Periods 
and  Eras  on  as  many  different  lines  of  escape. 
These  lines  cut  the  strata  at  all  points.  They 
pass  through  all  classes  of  habitats.  They  cross 
—  those  untold  crowds  of  them  which  belong  to 
the  most  advanced  and  widely  differing  species  — 
the  whole  breadth  of  fossil  Geology  quite  down 
into  the  Silurian.  And  they  are  not  mere  mathe- 
matical lines.  They  are  rather  so  many  wide 
thoroughfares,  so  many  winding  Stygian  rivers, 
visiting  all  the  habitats  of  all  the  Periods,  ever 
giving  and  ever  receiving  species,  and  finally 
drifting  down  on  ever  broadening  bosoms  into  our 
own  time  crowded  specimens  of  the  population  of 
every  other.  So  we  ought  to  see  strange  sights 
about  us.  The  old  trilobites  and  saurians  ought 
to  plod  in  our  modern  marshes.  The  old  asterol- 
epis  and  zeuglodon  and  enaliosaur  ought  to  swim 


108  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

in  our  modern  seas.  The  old  pterodactyles  and 
moas  ought  to  fly  in  our  modern  air.  All  those 
strange  forms  whose  mummied  relicts  stare  at  us 
from  the  cabinets  as  souvenirs  of  dead  ages,  ought 
to  come  out  of  their  cases  and  incrusting  stone, 
to  lead  over  their  lives  in  new  homes  and  haunts 
of  the  nineteenth  century  as  much  like  their  old 
ones  as  two  pennies  are  like  each  other.  Do  we 
find  those  old  fossils  now  living  ?  Not  one  of 
them.  Not  a  single  Silurian  species  has  come 
down  to  us  ;  not  a  single  species  of  any  other 
Geologic  Age.  Each  Age  has  species  altogether 
peculiar  to  itself;  and  even  each  of  the  several 
Periods  of  each  Age  has  but  few  species,  if  any, 
in  common  with  adjoining  Periods.  This  could 
not  have  been  on  development  principles.  It  is 
absolutely  incredible  that  not  a  single  individual 
of  the  vast  army  of  fossils  should  have  drifted 
down  to  us  alive  through  all  the  great  and  swarm- 
ing aortas  of  the  past.  Especially  incredible  is 
it  that  not  a  single  specimen  of  those  hardy  mol- 
luscan  species  of  the  Silurian,  which  would  have 
found  easy  home  all  over  the  globe  in  all  the  Eras, 
and  whose  individuals  were  so  amazingly  numer- 
ous as  to  make  up  with  their  flinty  remains  whole 
strata,  miles  in  thickness  —  I  say,  it  is  enormously 


NO  PERPENDICULAR    CHAINS.  109 

incredible  that  not  a  single  specimen  of  such  spe- 
cies should  have  succeeded,  in  escaping  out  of  its 
own  age  by  any  of  those  countless  tunnels  —  or, 
if  you  please,  that  immense  open  prairie,  wide  as 
the  world  —  connecting  it  with  all  other  ages. 
Even  supposing  we  should,  as  our  researches 
widen,  find  a  few  clear  examples  of  species  passed 
over  from  preceding  formations,  it  would  not  be 
sufficient  to  save  the  theory.  According  to  it, 
we  ought  to  find  almost  an  infinite  number  of 
such  examples.  They  ought  to  swarm  through 
the  rocks  of  every  Era.  All  our  present  lands  and 
seas  should  be  alive  with  those  strange  creatures 
whose  ghostly  visages  peer  at  us  out  of  the  glooms 
of  the  most  ancient  past. 

2.  According  to  the  Development  Scheme,  each 
organic  individual  now  living,  or  that  has  lived 
since  history  began,  ought  to  shade  away  by  in- 
sensible structural  differences  along  a  continuous 
line  of  ancestry  into  some  rude  mite  of  a protozoon. 

This  I  say  in  full  view  of  the  fact  that  it  is  be- 
ginning to  be  fashionable  among  evolutionists  to 
claim  that  Nature  sometimes  takes  leaps,  more  or 
less  large,  on  her  lines  of  development. 

It  is  well  known  that,  at  least  as  a  rule,  mon- 
strosities among  the  organic  races  do  not  perpet- 


I  10  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

uate  themselves  ;  that,  at  least  as  a  rule,  hybrid- 
ism prevents  great  leaps  from  species  to  species  ; 
that  almost,  if  not  quite,  universally,  durable  im- 
provements in  any  specific  type  are  made  very 
slowly,  and  have  not  spontaneously  taken  place, 
to  any  appreciable  amount,  since  the  dawn  of  his- 
tory. So  that  it  is  a  necessary,  as  well  as  ac- 
cepted, part  of  the  Development  Scheme  that  the 
organic  world  has  advanced  to  its  present  high 
grades  in  the  most  gradual  manner.  It  has  been 
an  immeasurable  creeping.  Each  organic  thing, 
of  any  complexity,  has  come  up  to  its  present 
place  through  indefinite  ages,  and  by  a  series  of 
steps  so  minute  that  they  deserve  to  be  called  dif- 
ferentials. Conceive  these  series  as  so  many  lines 
drawn  downward  through  the  earth,  and  passing 
through  all  the  links  of  ancestry,  to  their  respect- 
ive protozoa.  These  lines  are  as  innumerable  as 
are  the  thronging  individual  plants  and  animals  of 
every  name  that  have  lived  on  the  earth  for  some 
thousands  of  years  ;  and  pierce  the  strata  at  all 
points  —  thick  as  ever  darts  stood  on  the  shield 
of  a  beset  warrior,  or  as  grain-stalks  on  the  valley 
of  the  Nile.  Of  these,  a  number  altogether  incom- 
putable express  series  of  organisms  whose  remains 
were  capable  of  being  preserved  in  the  strata,  and 


NO   PERPENDICULAR   CHAINS.  \  \  \ 

—  considering  the  host  of  individuals   belonging 
to  almost  every  known  species  —  must  have  been 
preserved    in    the  strata.     Where  are  these  long 
lines  of  closely  graded  fossils  ?     Where  are  these 
organic  perpendiculars  whose  close-bound  sheaves 
choke  all  the  bowels  of  the  earth  ?     Some  of  them, 
at  least,  ought  to  have  been  met  with  and  recog- 
nized in  the  abundant  continuous  excavations  and 
explorations  which  have  been  made  with  widely- 
open  eyes.     As  if  to  make  examination  easier  for 
us,  the  strata  are  often  greatly  thrown  out  of  the 
horizontal,  so  as  to  place  on  the  surface  the  whole 
breadth  of  successive  formations,  and  thus  enable 
a  traveler  in   going  a   few  miles  with  his  feet    to 
pass   through  vast  periods   of  time  with  his  eyes. 
With  what  result  ?     Not  a  single  one  of  these  in- 
numerable scalce   has    been   seen.     Not  a   single 
continuous    structural    grade,  of  any    length,  has 
been  made  out ;  though,  according  to  the  Develop- 
ment Theory,  they  are   really  as    thick    in    every 
formation  as  are  autumnal  leaves  in   Vallambrosa. 
We  sometimes  find,  and  doubtless   shall   continue 
to  find,  a  plant  or  animal  intermediate  in  structure 
to  two  others  of  plainly  different  species,  and  mak- 
ing the  gap  between   them   less  than  till  then  it 
had  been  supposed :    but   never  yet  has   the  gap 


I  I  2  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

been  so  filled  up  as  to  allow  one  to  pass  in  a 
known  natural  way  over  to  the  other.  I  know  of 
no  evolutionists  who  show  it.  They  only  show 
that  they  have  been  able  to  reduce  the  interval  be- 
tween species  somewhat.  They  might  do  any 
amount  of  this  sort  of  work  and  not  help  their 
case  in  the  least.  Who  denies  that  different  sorts 
of  plants  and  animals  resemble  each  other,  some- 
times very  closely  ?  It  still  remains  true  that  no 
organic  chain  long  enough  to  connect  two  species 
confessedly  different  has  been  brought  to  light. 
This  could  not  have  happened  had  evolutionism 
been  true.  Researches  among  the  fossils  have 
been  too  close  and  extensive. 

3.  According  to  the  Development  Scheme,  eaeh 
organic  individual  that  has  ever  lived  on  the  eartJi 
ought  to  shade  away  laterally,  as  well  as  perpen- 
dicularly, by  minute  differences  into  its  protozoon. 

That  is,  there  ought  to  exist,  cotemporaneously 
with  any  given  organic  individual,  specimens  of 
all  the  terms  of  that  closely  graded  series  of  an- 
cestors which  connects  that  individual  with  its 
root-form. 

I  have  already  called  your  attention  to  the  fact 
that,  according  to  the  new  doctrine,  protozoa  like 
that  from  which  any  given  organism  sprung,  have 


NO   HORIZONTAL    CHAINS.  113 

been  freely  coming  into  existence  and  freely  ad- 
vancing ever  since.     Hence,  this  organism  ought 
to  have  cotemporaneously  existing  on  the  earth  all 
the  preceding  grades,  away  down  to  the  aboriginal 
germ.     The  perpendicular  series  ought  to  appear 
also  as  a   horizontal    series.     The  line    of  closely 
graded  ancestors  ought  to  be  perfectly  duplicated 
in  a   line  of  closely  graded   cotemporaries.     For 
example,  man  ought  to  find,  somewhere  among  the 
living   things    of  the  world,  examples    of  all  the 
links  in  that   ancestral   chain  which  connects  him 
with    his  protozoon.      He    ought   to    shade   away 
laterally  through  present   countries  as  he   shades 
away  perpendicularly  through  ancient  strata.     So 
of  every  other  thing  now  living.     What   infinite, 
infinite  lines  !     Do  we  find  any  of  them  ?     Do  we 
find  any  of  them  ?     Can  we  shade  away  a  man  into 
a  tadpole  by  judiciously  selecting  from  among  liv- 
ing and  historic  animals  ?     Can  we  do   as   much 
for  a  single  living  thing  ?     Enthusiastic  observers 
and  travelers  are  not  few.     Sea  and  land  and  air, 
all  round  the  world,  have  been  vexed  by  our  curi- 
ous   inquiry.     Our  Natural  Histories  are   getting 
to  be   exceedingly   bulky.     And  yet  not  a  single 
line  of  closely  graded  organisms  can  be  made  out 
from  all  known  living  Nature.     Not  even  a  con- 
8 


114  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

siderable  fraction  of  such  a  line.  The  best  we  can 
do  is  to  piece  out  a  few  inches,  so  to  speak,  from 
varieties  of  the  same  species  :  then  comes  a  gap 
which  we  cannot  bridge  by  the  proper  transitional 
forms.  The  best  series  we  can  make  out  is  but  a 
succession  of  gaps.  Now  this  could  not  be  if  the 
Development  Scheme  were  correct.  With  infinite 
graded  series  of  organisms,  in  all  their  integrity, 
lying  along  our  horizon,  right  under  the  eyes  of 
mankind,  it  is  simply  incredible  that  we  should 
not  be  able  to  find  a  single  considerable  fraction 
of  a  single  one  of  them. 

And  the  geologists  are  no  more  successful. 
We  should  not  suppose  they  would  be.  What  is, 
-  hints  strongly  at  what  has  been.  If  no  continu- 
ous organic  chain  is  now  living,  and  if  we  find  no 
sign  of  such  by  going  back  through  the  ages  of 
history,  the  fact  pointedly  suggests,  not  merely 
that  we  shall  not  find  such  among  the  fossils,  but 
that  they  did  not  exist  to  be  found.  Still  let  us 
search.  So  we  leave  the  bright,  warm,  vocal 
homes  of  the  living  races,  and  go  down  with  our 
torches  into  those  cold  and  silent  mausolea  where 
Nature  with  impartial  hand  has  laid  up  the 
remains  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the  world. 
What   do  we  find  ?     What   but  that    the   fossils 


SPECIAL   CHASMS.  115 

appear  to  have  been  related  to  each  other  just  as 
the  living  and  historic  races  are  found  related  ! 
In  all  directions  the  same  succession  of  gaps  and 
partitions.  We  pass  with  our  hue  and  cry  for 
the  missing  links  from  stratum  to  stratum,  but  dis- 
cover none  of  them,  or  not  enough  of  them  — 
neither  the  organic  Jwrizontals  with  which  each 
buried  era  ought  to  be  crowded,  nor  the  crowded 
perpendiculars.  The  infinite  fossil  grades  that 
pass  along  the  strata  are  fully  as  scarce  to  our 
finding  as  those  passing  through  the  strata.  You 
see  the  difficulty  is  twofold.  First,  we  have  infi- 
nite sinuous  ladders  and  stairs,  so  finely  graded 
that  an  animalcule  might  walk  up  them,  passing 
upward  from  the  Silurian  ;  second,  we  have  these 
infinite  ladders  and  stairs  all  fallen,  like  so  many 
felled  trees,  across  the  formations,  making  for  each 
age  a  closely-woven  stony  web,  whose  warp  and 
woof  alike  contrive  to  elude  the  observation  of  all 
careful  observers.  Let  those  believe  it  who  can. 
Geology  does  not  believe  it. 

5.  According  to  the  Development  Scheme,  we 
ought  to  find  110  very  abrupt  occurrence  of,  especially, 
the  higher  forms  of  organism. 

This  scheme  being  witness,  each  of  these  forms 
must  have  been  reached  in  the  way  of  numberless 


1 1 6  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

delicate  transitions  from  something  lower.  So 
there  ought  to  be  no  organic  chasms  at  all. 
Especially,  there  ought  to  be  no  great  chasms. 
Still  more  especially,  there  ought  to  be  no  great 
chasms  just  back  of  organisms  of  the  higher 
grades  ;  for  such  organisms  are  found  to  have  less 
elasticity  and  variability  of  structure  than  the 
lower.  To  such  chasms  as  these  last  the  Devel- 
opment Hypothesis  especially  objects.  It  makes 
oath  by  itself  (for  what  greater  has  it  to  swear  by) 
that  they  never  have  occurred  —  that  a  very 
abrupt  appearance  of  high  organic  life,  whether 
in  fauna  or  flora,  has  never  in  a  single  instance 
and  under  any  pretense  ventured  to  take  place. 

Well,  what  do  we  find  ?  First,  we  find  not  a 
few  particular  organs  and  organic  features  of  a 
very  high  grade  appearing  with  extreme  sudden- 
ness, with  enormous  organic  chasms  directly  back 
of  them,  with  an  entire  absence  for  a  long  dis- 
tance just  behind  them  of  those  flights  of  infini- 
tesimal steps  by  which  alone  they  should  have 
made  their  appearance. 

Does  any  one  know  a  more  exquisite  organ 
than  the  eye  ?  And  yet  the  eye  in  great  com- 
plexity and  perfection  is  found  in  the  trilobite,  at 
the   very  threshold   of  the   fossil   world  :  also  in 


SPECIAL   CHASMS.  \\y 

those  very  microscopic  infusoria  which  some  men 
would  have  us  accept  as  examples  of  spontaneous 
generation.  The  result  was  reached  by  a  great 
leap.  For  a  long  distance  there  were  none  of 
those  cautious  and  delicate  approaches  to  an  eye, 
such  as  military  engineers  sometimes  make  to  a 
formidable  besieged  fortress.  There  could  not 
have  been.  The  eye  of  the  trilobite  abuts  hard  on 
a  general  convulsion  incompatible  with  organic 
life.  Further,  it  abuts  on  the  Azoic  Age,  an  age 
without  organisms  of  any  sort,  save  perhaps  a 
few  sea-weeds  and  animalcules.  So,  all  at  once, 
an  eye  of  large  size  leaped  into  being  across  the 
great  gulf  that  divides  it  from  practical  zero.  No 
series  of  constantly  increasing  dents  in  a  shell, 
followed  by  a  series  of  constantly  enlarging  and 
improving  holes,  and  these  gradually  filled  in  with 
humors  that  slowly  ripened  into  lenses,  helped  to 
bridge  the  immense  interval.  The  whole  was 
cleared  at  a  bound.  This  is  just  as  impossible  on 
development  principles,  as  it  would  be  for  one  to 
mount,  without  a  graduated  progress,  to  that 
utmost  dome  of  St.  Peter's  which  commands  the 
whole  broad  Campagna. 

And   there   must   have   been  organs  of  a  still 
higher  order  than  even  eyes,  at  the  very  outset 


H8  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

of  the  organic  ages.  Life,  Growth,  Reproduction 
—  these  things  were  all  there  in  as  perfect  exam- 
ples as  can  be  found  to-day.  And  yet  these  are 
the  very  highest  and  most  wonderful  attributes 
possessed  by  organic  beings  :  and  if,  as  the  new 
doctrine  says,  they  come  of  mere  organization, 
the  organs  producing  such  wonderful  things  must 
be  still  more  wonderful.  The  cause  of  a  thing 
must  be  superior  to  the  thing  itself.  What  a 
bound  have  we  here !  It  is  passing  suddenly 
from  the  vale  of  Chamouni  to  that  utmost  Alpine 
summit  which  displays  all  Switzerland  and  Lom- 
bardy  ;  without  sloping  and  spiraling  our  way  up 
through  the  usual  fifty  miles  of  ascent. 

Second,  we  find  entire  organic  beings  of  high 
grade  appearing  suddenly  —  with  great  struct- 
ural chasms  just  behind  them  —  with  no  finely 
graded  antecedents  by  the  aid  of  which  they 
might  have  crept  up  to  their  high  places.  Huge 
ferns  such  as  are  now  nowhere  seen  ;  huge  pines, 
stout  and  lofty  as  any  that  dominate  Norwegian 
forests,  appeared  suddenly  —  with  nothing  be- 
tween them  and  sea-weed,  not  even  the  mosses. 
Huge  cephalopods,  with  shells  twelve  or  fifteen 
feet  long,  and  of  the  very  highest  mollusk  struct- 
ure, appeared    suddenly  —  with  nothing  between 


SPECIAL   CHASMS.  I  1 9 

them  and  nothing.  Huge  sharks  and  ganoids, 
over  twenty  feet  long  and  of  the  very  highest 
type  of  fish  structure  —  with  great  organic  blanks 
just  behind  them — began  the  Age  of  Fishes. 
Huge  reptiles,  from  thirty  to  sixty  feet  long  and 
of  the  very  highest  reptile  structure  —  with  great 
organic  blanks  just  behind  them  —  began  the 
Age  of  Reptiles.  Huge  land-mammals,  as  the 
Megatheres  and  Deinotheres  and  Mastodons,  to 
some  of  which  our  largest  modern  quadrupeds 
are  mere  pigmies ;  huge  sea-mammals,  as  the 
Zeuglodons,  seventy  feet  long  —  all  with  great 
organic  blanks  just  back  of  them  —  began  the 
Age  of  Mammals.  All  of  these  come  upon  the 
scene  with  extreme  abruptness  ;  as  if  evoked  by 
the  stroke  of  a  magician's  wand. 

Now,  the  Development  Scheme  does  not  object 
to  huge  and  high-graded  organisms,  but  it  does 
object,  and  that  most  strenuously,  to  their  occur- 
ring by  huge  leaps.  It  makes  oath  that  they  can- 
not do  so.  Lower  species  of  the  same  group 
must  precede  them.  They  must  reach  their 
pinnacle  by  climbing  slowly  along  finely  gradu- 
ated precursors  of  less  dignity.  There  can  be  no 
great  chasm  as  to  size  or  grade  of  structure  be- 
tween them  and  the  most  similar    of   preceding 


120  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

organisms.  You  see  how  such  a  notion  flies  in 
the  face  of  facts.  These  fossil  giants  just  men- 
tioned —  all  of  them  —  crowd  up  hard  against 
general  exterminations.  All  of  them  have  the 
next  lower  species  of  their  respective  groups  after 
them  in  time,  or  at  the  most  with  them  ;  never 
just  before  them.  A  great  gulf  yawns  between 
them  and  their  nearest  kindred  of  the  preceding 
formation  —  always  as  to  size,  often  as  to  grade 
of  structure,  and  sometimes  as  to  both.  The 
lower  steps  of  the  necessary  flight  are  before  the 
climbers,  instead  of  just  behind  them.  There  is 
a  sort  of  broken  stairs  to  come  down  on,  but  none 
whatever  to  go  up  on.  And  this  not  in  a  single 
instance  merely  ;  it  is  the  habit  of  the  Geologic 
Ages.  You  see  the  argument  is  cumulative.  It 
is  not  to  be  supposed  that  Geology  mistakes  in 
so  many  particulars  and  on  so  wide  a  field. 

Besides,  these  are  only  the  great  chasms.  Ge- 
ology is  full  of  minor  ones,  which,  though  not  so 
striking,  are  really  as  inconsistent  with  any  known 
scheme  of  evolution  as  are  the  others.  It  is 
really  just  as  impossible  to  get  half-way  up  the 
pyramid  of  Cheops  without  a  flight  of  steps  as  it 
is  to  get  to  the  top  without  it.  All  chasms  that 
deserve  the  name    abhor  the   Development    Hy- 


SPECIAL    CHASMS.  121 

pothesis  as  much  as  Nature  abhors  a  vacuum. 
"  Nature  makes  no  structural  leap  which  she  can 
hold,"  is  history ;  and  so  is  the  necessary  motto 
of  the  new  scheme  for  explaining  Nature.  Ac- 
cording to  this,  it  is  just  as  impossible  for  the 
properties  and  laws  of  matter  to  reach  a  whale 
or  a  trout,  except  along  a  gentle  slope  of  im- 
proving organisms,  as  it  would  be  to  build  a 
cathedral  without  successive  tiers  of  scaffolding, 
or  from  the  top  downward. 

But  there  is  a  still  greater  leap  than  any  of 
these  are  commonly  supposed  to  be.  I  mean  a 
leap  from  a  protozobn  to  a  man. 

It  is  common  to  place  man  alone  at  the  very 
head  of  the  scale  of  organic  beings.  And  it  is 
true  that,  all  things  considered,  he  deserves  the 
place.  But  he  does  not  deserve  it  apart  from  his 
mental  and  moral  characteristics.  Viewed  apart 
from  these,  as  he  ought  to  be  —  for  evolutionists 
may  not  ask  us  to  allow  them  to  assume,  in  defi- 
ance of  the  beliefs,  traditions,  needs,  and  almost 
sight  of  all  mankind,  that  mind  is  a  product  of 
bodily  combinations  —  viewed  apart  from  these 
and  considered  as  a  mere  animal,  man  is  not 
more  wonderful  than  many  other  animals.  As  a 
spiritual  being  he  is  plain  king  over  all  the  world. 


122  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

In  some  highest  specimens  —  men  within  whose 
roomy  souls  might  be  described  the  whole  orbit 
of  Neptune  —  he  rises  almost  unspeakably  above 
all  other  earthly  organisms.  But  it  is  only  in 
virtue  of  his  superior  spiritual  traits.  The  mo- 
ment we  strip  him  of  this  superiority,  the  Sam- 
son is  shorn  of  his  locks,  and  the  king  loses  his 
crown  :  the  moment  that  speaking  face  and  form 
of  his  cease  to  be  informed  by  a  lofty  and  respon- 
sible intelligence,  whose  regal  lightnings  flash  in 
glances,  words,  and  actions,  he  becomes  merely  a 
better  sort  of  ape. 

And  an  ape  he  is,  structurally,  according  to  the 
views  of  development  men.  They  universally 
accept  the  ape  as  being  the  next  extant  link  to 
man  in  his  chain  of  being ;  while  Huxley  and 
others  claim  that  man  differs  less  from  apes  than 
apes  differ  among  themselves.  Granting  for  a 
moment  this  most  unpalatable  doctrine,  I  ask  for 
some  light  on  the  grade  of  this  brother  of  ours. 
We  reckon  the  grade  of  a  machine  in  view  of  two 
qualities,  namely,  beauty  and  efficiency ;  espe- 
cially, in  view  of  what  it  can  do.  If  better  than 
another  machine  in  doing  difficult  things  it  is 
reckoned  of  a  higher  grade,  though,  perhaps,  it 
is    the    simplest    in    structure.      Judged    by   this 


SPECIAL    CHASMS.  1 23 

principle,  the  ape  is  certainly  not  a  higher  struct- 
ure than  that  vision  of  beauty  the  bird  of  para- 
dise, or  that  Bucephalus  whose  "  neck  is  clothed 
with  thunder,"  or  that  behemoth  who  is  "  chief 
of  the  ways  of  God,"  or  that  leviathan  who  is 
"  king  over  all  the  children  of  pride."  It  is  not 
the  fairest,  strongest,  swiftest,  hardiest  —  does  not 
show  the  greatest  variety  and  excellence  of  organic 
feats  and  qualities.  Esthetically  considered,  phys- 
iologically considered,  considered  even  anatom- 
ically, that  gorilla  is  not  more  wonderful,  to  say 
the  least,  than  any  one  of  a  whole  menagerie  of 
animals  that  might  be  named,  living  or  fossil. 

Is  the  best  monkey  that  ever  chattered  in 
African  or  Asian  woods  a  nobler  animal  in  struct- 
ure than  yonder  eagle,  who,  with  eye  fixed  un- 
blinkingly  on  the  sun,  soars  so  easily  out  of  our 
sight  on  his  graceful  and  powerful  pinions,  and 
then  cleaves  his  level  way  at  the  rate  of  two  hun- 
dred miles  an  hour ;  or  than  that  lion,  whose 
kingly  voice  and  lithe  strength  and  mighty  bound 
are  the  terror  of  jungles  and  hamlets  ?  Pray,  is 
our  brother  ape  a  more  wonderful  animal  than 
any  of  those  huge  Tertiary  mammals  ;  or  than 
that  Triassic  saurian,  still  huger,  before  whose 
frightful  jaws   and  bulk  and  strength  and  eyes  of 


124  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

a  full  foot  diameter  the  Paladins  of  Charlemagne, 
and  the  renowned  Cid,  and  Coeur  de  Lion,  and 
even  the  monster-destroying  Hercules  himself, 
would  have  trembled  and  incontinently  run  away  ? 
Indeed,  is  the  human  ape  at  all  more  wonder- 
ful, considered  as  a  mere  organism,  than  that 
great  placoid  fish,  the  asterolepis,  swimming  in 
the  very  door-way  of  the  Devonian  ;  or  than 
those  other  placoids  lately  found  swimming  in 
the  Silurian  seas  and  on  the  very  utmost  coast 
of  discovered  life  —  fishes  armed  in  iridescent 
and  exquisitely  carved  plate-mail,  such  as  no 
warring  monarch  ever  wore,  or  Cellini  fashioned  ; 
fishes  that  could  outswim  the  swiftest  ship,  out- 
see  the  sharpest  human  eye,  outdo  with  force  and 
promptness  and  endurance  of  muscle  the  strong- 
est and  most  agile  human  athlete  ? 

Indeed,  I  verily  believe  that  man,  whether  ape 
or  not,  is  not  more  wonderful,  simply  as  a  mech- 
anism, than  many  of  those  myriad-eyed  insects 
of  the  Coal  Measures  ;  or  than  some  of  those  ani- 
malcules that  must  have  swarmed  to  meet  the 
tentacula  of  larger  Silurian  animals,  now  forming 
whole  immense  beds  of  limestone.  These  living 
mites  of  eldest  time,  these  avant-couriers  of  or- 
ganic   magnitude,    among  which    or   near   which 


SPECIAL    CHASMS.  1 25 

development  men  look  for  their  protozoa  —  we 
have  the  analogues  and  organic  equivalents  of 
these  (so  the  scheme  demands)  under  our  micro- 
scopes to-day :  and  find  them  endowed  with 
mouths,  teeth,  stomachs,  muscles,  nerves,  eyes ; 
in  short,  with  all  the  leading  human  organs.  As 
we  gaze  we  are  astonished  to  see  the  rich  hues, 
the  beautiful  forms,  the  graceful  movements,  the 
prodigious  reproductiveness,  the  astonishing  deli- 
cacy of  senses  and  instincts,  the  amazing  agility 
and  strength  of  muscle  which,  if  reproduced  in  a 
man,  would  enable  him  to  spring  like  a  whirlwind 
half  round  the  globe.  We  have  been  truly  taught 
that  the  realms  of  the  microscope  are  fully  as 
marvelous  as  those  of  the  telescope.  Is  not  the 
Lord's  Prayer,  all  perfectly  printed  beneath  a  pin- 
head,  quite  as  remarkable  as  when  printed  on  a 
folio  page  ?  These  pocket  editions  of  Nature, 
these  miniature  copies  of  the  Pater  Noster  which 
our  searching  lenses  show  us  among  the  animal- 
cules, I  hold,  are  fully  as  wonderful  as  our  grosser 
human  bodies,  as  mere  bodies.  We  are  not  likely 
to  see  the  man  who  can  prove  the  contrary  — 
who,  for  example,  can  prove  that  the  wheel  ani- 
malcule is  a  less  exquisite  piece  of  putting  to- 
gether than  a  living  Apollo  Belvidere.     It  is  dif- 


126  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

ferent  from  a  man  ;  it  wants  some  things  that  a 
man  has  ;  but  then  it  has  other  things  that  a  man 
wants  :  and  it  would  be  very  hard  to  show  that,  on 
an  equitable  striking  of  the  balance  between  the 
two  as  wholes,  the  microcosm  is  not  as  admirable 
as  the  macrocosm. 

So  of  the  eagle,  the  behemoth,  the  saurian,  the 
placoid.  Each  is  inferior  to  man  in  some  re- 
spects ;  but  each  is  so  superior  in  other  respects 
that  we  cannot  say  that,  on  the  whole,  its  struct- 
ural grade  is  not  equally  high  with  our  own.  To 
all  appearance  it  is.  Indeed,  a  man  with  only 
the  mental  grade  of  these  animals  is  well  known 
to  be  a  far  more  helpless  creature  :  in  the  range 
and  quality  of  the  work  he  can  do,  he  is  below 
almost  all  the  living  tribes.  What  matters  it  that 
his  ratio  of  brain  to  body  is  greater  than  theirs  ? 
We  are  speaking  of  organic  grade  ;  and  that 
fatty  pulp  which  we  call  the  brain  is,  to  all  appear- 
ance, one  of  the  least  organized  parts  in  the  whole 
body  ;  and  no  man  is  entitled  to  assume  that  this 
appearance  is  deceptive  and  really  covers  a  won- 
derful mechanics  —  or  even  chemistry  or  galva- 
nism—  which  gives  birth  to  all  mental  phenom- 
ena. 

And  thus,  on  each  abrupt  brink  of  the  successive 


OBJECTION.  127 

Geologic  Ages,  stands  at  least  the  organic  equiva- 
lent of  a  man.  He  stands  at  the  very  brink  of  the 
Azoic,  looking  down  a  precipice  as  steep  and  pro- 
found as  stretches  from  zenith  to  nadir.  How- 
came  he  hither  ?  By  what  stairs  did  he  ascend  ? 
That  finely  graduated  stairs  is  not  to  be  found. 
It  did  not  exist.  The  wondrous  organism  came 
up  from  the  mighty  profound  by  one  great  leap. 
What  a  leap  was  that  !  What  leaps  were  all  those 
that  began  the  various  Geologic  Eras  !  It  was 
really  the  leap  from  zero  to  a  Man  —  that  impos- 
sibility of  impossibilities,  according  to  the  Devel- 
opment Hypothesis. 

What  answer  do  the  friends  of  this  hypothesis 
make  to  such  considerations  ?  They  plead  the 
imperfection  and  uncertainty  of  Geology.  They 
tell  us  how  small  a  part  of  the  strata  has  been  ex- 
amined, and  what  great  mistakes  have  sometimes 
been  made  in  the  effort  to  decipher  the  Ten  Com- 
mandments from  those  tables  of  stone. 

It  is  very  true  that  large  parts  of  the  world  have 
not  even  been  looked  on  by  geologists.  It  is  also 
true  that,  in  the  parts  examined  by  them,  by  no 
means  every  cubic  foot  of  soil  and  rock  has  been 
faithfully  dug  over  and  sifted.  True  —  and  likely 
to  remain  true  for  some  little  time  yet.     But  that 


128  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

researches  among  the  formations  have  not  been 
extensive  and  thorough  enough  to  bring  to  light  the 
missing  links,  if  such  ever  existed,  in  the  supposed 
continuous  chain  of  organic  development  —  this  is 
not  allowed  so  easily.  The  strata  have  been  ex- 
amined enough  to  find  thousands  of  cases  where 
two  closely  related  species  appear  by  multitudes 
of  specimens,  and  not  a  single  example  of  those 
intermediate  forms  needed  to  connect  them,  and 
which,  if  they  existed,  must  have  been  as  numer- 
ous and  easily  preserved  as  the  others.  The 
chances  against  this  are  so  enormous,  that  some 
of  the  friends  of  evolution  have  felt  compelled  to 
give  up  the  idea  of  development  by  minute 
changes,  and  to  suppose  that  it  has  taken  place 
largely  by  leaps. 

But  this  is  mere  supposition.  Not  a  case  is 
known  in  which  the  whole  distance  from  one 
species  to  another  has  been  cleared  at  a  single 
bound.  As  much  has  been  confessed  by  leading 
evolutionists  ;  although  a  late  attempt  has  been 
made  to  show  that  such  cases  have  been  found  in 
that  twilight  region  of  the  infinitesimals  which  is 
almost  darkness  itself,  and  where  it  is  about  as 
easy  to  stumble  as  it  is  to  walk.  And  if  the  pas- 
sage from  one  species  to  another  is  supposed  to 


OBJECTION.  129 

be  made  by  several  leaps,  we  have  just  as  much 
right  to  demand  that  the  transitional  forms  appear 
among  the  fossils  as  we  have  in  the  case  of  the 
other  hypothesis.  The  cases  are  precisely  of  the 
same  kind  :  only  the  links  in  the  one  are  much 
larger  than  in  the  other.  Besides,  an  hypothesis 
that  allows  a  new  species  to  be  naturally  produced 
in  a  very  short  time  —  almost  flashed  on  the 
world — is  specially  open  to  the  objection  that 
never  once  in  all  the  long  range  of  human  history 
has  a  new  species  been  known  to  arise  in  this  way. 
All  human  experience,  for  thousands  of  years,  is 
against  Nature  having  come  down  to  us  after  the 
manner  of  a  rabbit. 

"  But  is  not  Geology  a  very  uncertain  sort  of  a 
thing  ?  "  Well :  I  am  prepared  to  admit  that  ge- 
ologists are  not  infallible.  And,  while  I  am  about 
it,  I  might  as  well  admit  that  no  Vatican  Council 
is  even  considering  the  question  of  their  infalli- 
bility. They  have  made  a  great  many  mistakes. 
Some  of  their  mistakes  have  been  of  the  "  high 
and  mighty  "  sort,  and  will  not  soon  be  forgotten 
—  great  bubbles  of  crude  and  flighty  speculation, 
launched  into  the  air  with  infinite  parade,  called 
worlds  and  science  and  philosophy,  wondered  after 
a  little  as  they  rose  gayly  over  the  opened-mouthed 
9 


130  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

crowd,  then  disappearing  ;  generally  oursting  as 
they  disappeared.  Up  to  the  present  time  geolo- 
gists have  had  to  take  back  not  far  from  a  hundred 
different  theories.  There  is  sign  that  they  will 
have  to  take  back  some  more.  If  matters  go  on  as 
they  have  done,  it  will  not  be  long  before  —  what 
with  the  deep-sea  dredgings  and  other  explora- 
tions —  there  will  be  great  shaking  in  certain 
quarters.  The  very  text-books  are  already  hav- 
ing indignation  meetings  in  view  of  the  mutila- 
tions preparing  for  them.  And  no  one  dreams  of 
denying  that  on  the  outskirts  of  Geology,  as  in  a 
degree  on  the  outskirts  of  every  other  science, 
there  is  a  debatable  land  where  the  light  is  weak 
and  the  footing  insecure  ;  where  truth  and  error 
with  uncertain  faces  still  contend  doubtfully  for 
the  mastery.  Time  was  when  Geology  was  all 
outskirts.  The  case  is  not  so  bad  now ;  but  a 
vexatious  suburb,  of  large  breadth,  with  its  umbras 
and  penumbras,  still  remains. 

So  much  must  be  admitted.  But  then  the  ad- 
mission is  hardly  worth  the  making.  I  have  not 
asked  you  to  follow  me  into  that  contested  border- 
land of  speculation.  On  the  contrary,  I  have 
strictly  confined  myself  to  the  central  geological 
region    of  assured  knowledge.     If  there  are  any 


OBJECTION.  131 

conclusions  in  Geology  which  may  be  relied  on, 
they  are  those  just  brought  forward  as  being  in 
conflict  with  the  Doctrine  of  Evolution.  What 
student  of  the  earth  doubts  that  its  past  was 
broken  up  into  many  ages  —  that  each  of  these 
lacked  the  specific  fauna  and  flora  of  earlier  times 
—  that  neither  perpendicular  nor  horizontal  or- 
ganic chains  have  as  yet  been  found  in  any  of 
them  —  that  in  multitudes  of  cases  high  organ- 
isms appeared  without  leaving  sign  of  such  grad- 
uated antecedents  as  the  Law  Scheme  requires  ? 

Besides,  these  teachings  of  Geology  should  be 
good  against  evolutionists,  if  not  good  against  any- 
body else.  These  men  accept,  and  appeal  to,  and 
heavily  lean  on,  certain  geological  teachings  for 
the  support  of  their  scheme.  That  scheme  re- 
quires an  enormous  lapse  of  time  since  life  began 
in  the  world,  in  order  to  lift  its  protozoa  into  men  — 
they  very  freely  go  to  Geology  for  that  fact.  That 
scheme  requires  a  higher  temperature  for  the 
earth  in  remote  times  than  it  now  has  —  they 
very  freely  go  to  Geology  for  that.  That  scheme 
requires  an  advance  along  the  mighty  slopes  of 
the  past  in  organic  grade  of  being  —  they  quite 
freely  go  to  Geology  for  that  ;  and  think  they  find 
it  when  they  find  a  very  different  matter,  namely, 


I32  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

an  advance  in  the  grade  of  organic  beings.  They 
unhesitatingly  take  these  geological  facts  and 
found  on  them  as  on  so  much  granite.  And  yet 
this  granite  of  theirs  is  not  one  jot  more  reliable 
than  those  other  facts  which  we  have  just  been 
viewing.  Both  rest  on  the  same  grade  of  research 
and  evidence  ;  and  the  same  style  of  objecting 
which  is  used  against  the  one  class  is  just  as  good 
against  the  other. 

"  The  record  has  been  very  imperfectly  read." 
Well :  how  do  you  know  that  further  examination 
of  this  very  imperfectly  read  record  will  not  track 
fossil  birds,  quadrupeds,  men  even  —  not  the  or- 
ganic equivalents  of  men,  but  men  themselves  — 
d  v  i  to  the  very  earliest  fossiliferous  formations  ; 
just  as  some  persons  are  plainly  aching  to  do  ; 
and  just  as  some  mammals  have  been  tracked 
down  from  the  Tertiary  to  the  latest,  middle,  and 
earliest  Secondary ;  and  just  as  fishes  have  been 
tracked  down  from  the  Devonian  to  the  latest, 
(and  as  some  say)  middle,  and  earliest  Silurian  ? 

"  But  the  record  itself  is  very  imperfect."  Well : 
how  do  you  know  that  some  such  causes  as  have 
made  this  record  imperfect,  and  suppressed  count- 
less links  in  all  the  chains  of  development,  have 
not  also  suppressed  traces  of  a  vastly  swifter  rate 


OBJECTION.  133 

of  rock  building  in  ancient  times  than  we  see  now 
—  traces  which  would  finish  doing  what  the  oce- 
anic dredgings  have  so  astoundingly  begun  to  do, 
and  reduce  that  venerable  geologic  eternity  which 
we  have  so  much  admired,  and  during  which  the 
races  have  had  ample  time  for  leisurely  and  drow- 
sily climbing  to  their  present  dignity  along  the 
easy  grade  of  their  fluxional  steps,  to  compara- 
tively very  pitiful  dimensions  ? 

Certainly,  we  might  talk  to  evolutionists  about 
their  facts  very  much  as  some  of  them  do  to  us 
about  ours.  The  fact  is,  their  suppositions  are 
like  some  very  tall  men  ;  they  have  only  to  lie 
down  properly  at  full  length,  in  order  to  be 
wherever  they  wish  to  go.  They  do  not  need 
any  evidence.  But  if  they  would  still  keep  to  the 
time-honored  custom  of  giving  a  reason  for  the 
supposition  that  is  in  them,  and  if  they  feel  in- 
clined to  go  to  Geology  in  part  for  that  reason, 
by  all  means  let  them  deal  impartially  with  facts 
of  equal  standing  and  prestige.  Let  them  accept 
those  on  the  right  hand,  and  those  on  the  left  as 
well.  Surely  they  will  not  allow  themselves  to 
do  so  unscientific  a  thing  as  to  take  the  science 
where  it  suits  them,  and  cast  away  the  same  sci- 
ence where  it  refutes  them  !  Surely  they  will 
take  the  whole  rounded  science  as  it  stands  ! 


134  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

What  then?  Why,  our  facts  are  flatly  incon- 
sistent with  their  scheme  for  explaining  Nature  ; 
while  their  facts  fully  agree  with  our  scheme.  It 
is  nothing  against  the  doctrine  of  an  eternal  God 
that  millions  on  millions  of  years  have  come  and 
gone  since  living  beings  began  on  the  earth ; 
nothing  against  the  doctrine  of  a  God  whose 
name  is  Law  and  Order  and  Progress,  that  these 
living  beings  have  risen  in  grade  as  to  brain  and 
spiritual  qualities  as  they  have  moved  toward  us 
along  that  bewildering  past.  On  the  contrary, 
such  facts  are  in  embracing  harmony  with  The- 
ism. They  say  benedictions  over  it.  They  put 
warm,  though  reverent,  lips  to  its  august  brow. 
But  those  other  facts  which  it  has  been  the  ob- 
ject of  this  lecture  to  set  forth,  do  nothing  of  the 
sort  to  the  Law  Scheme.  They  do  just  the  oppo- 
site. They  assault  the  scheme  with  both  hands. 
And  they  are  not  a  scanty  two  or  three  that  join 
in  the  assault.  They  are  comprehensive,  mani- 
fold facts.  Those  breaks  in  the  continuity  of  or- 
ganic life  are  many  —  those  absences  from  each 
era  of  the  species  of  all  preceding  eras  are  count- 
less—  those  absences  of  organic  perpendiculars 
and  horizontals  are  countless  also  —  those  great 
chasms  just  back  of  the  higher  grades  of  organs, 


OBJECTION.  135 

organic  properties,  and  complete  individuals  are 
many  as  well  as  vast.  And,  altogether,  the  facts 
march  by  battalions.  They  are  the  brunt  and 
drift  of  our  accepted  Geology. 

Some  years  ago,  Professor  Sedgewick,  one  of 
the  most  eminent  of  British  geologists,  wrote  the 
following  words  :  "  Were  all  the  anatomists  of  the 
earth  against  us  we  should  not  one  jot  abate  our 
confidence.  For  we  have  examined  the  old  rec- 
ords ;  but  not  in  cabinets  where  things  of  a  dif- 
ferent age  are  put  side  by  side,  and  so  viewed, 
might  suggest  some  glimmering  notions  of  a  false 
historical  connection.  We  have  seen  them  in 
spots  where  Nature  placed  them,  and  we  know 
their  true  historical  meaning.  We  have  visited 
in  succession  the  tombs  and  charnel-houses  of 
these  old  times,  and  we  took  with  us  the  clew 
spun  in  the  fabric  of  development  ;  but  we  found 
this  clew  no  guide  through  these  ancient  laby- 
rinths, and,  sorely  against  our  will,  we  were  com- 
pelled to  snap  its  thread  ;  and  we  now  dare  to 
affirm  with  all  the  confidence  of  assured  truth, 
that  Geology  —  not  seen  through  the  mists  of  any 
theory,  but  taken  as  a  plain  succession  of  monu- 
ments and  facts  —  offers  one  firm  cumulative  ar- 
gument against  the  hypothesis  of  development." 


136  FIFTH  LECTURE. 

Is  this  an  antiquated  testimony  ?  It  is  as  true 
to  the  latest  geological  facts  as  to  those  of  twenty 
years  ago.  You  can  read  in  your  own  college  text- 
book of  to-day,  by  one  who  stands  in  the  front 
rank  of  living  geologists,  these  weighty  words,  — 
"  Geology  appears  to  bring  us  directly  before  the 
Creator.  It  leads  to  no  other  solution  of  the 
great  problem  of  the  creation,  whether  of  kinds 
of  matter  or  of  species  of  life,  than  this, 
Deus    Fecit." 


VI. 

CONFLICT    WITH    THE    SCIENCE 
OF    PROBABILITIES. 

NOW   elvCLL  KCLL  TOV  KOafXOV  KCU  T^S  T(X^C(OS  7T(X(Tr]<;  UlTLOV. 

Anaxagoras. 

Sed  neque  centauri  fuerunt,  neque  tempore  in  ullo 
Esse  queat  duplici  natura,  et  corpore  bino, 
Ex  alienigenis  membris  compacta  potestas. 

Lucretius. 


VI.  Conflict  with  the  Science  of  Probabilities. 

:.     DOCTRINE  OF  CHANCES i30 

2.  BROKEN  CHAINS 141 

3.  SPONTANEOUS  MINIMS i48 

4.  DISJECTA  MEMBRA 152 

5.  OVERLAPPINGS  OF  SPECIES 157 

6.  IMPROPRIETIES  OF  STRUCTURE 161 

7.  ORGANIC  LIMITS 170 

8.  FEW  TYPES 176 

9.  SPIRITUAL  PROPERTIES iSa 


SIXTH   LECTURE, 


CONFLICT  WITH   THE    SCIENCE  OF  PROB- 
ABILITIES. 

ASK  your  attention,  in  the  present  lecture,  to 
■*•  another  witnessing  Science  —  the  Science  of 
Probabilities. 

This  is  really  a  mathematical  branch  of  knowl- 
edge ;  and  it  is  not  altogether  easy  to  render  its 
testimony  acceptably  into  our  common  forms  of 
thought  and  speech.  I  will,  however,  venture  to 
make  the  attempt. 

The  fundamental  principle  of  the  Science  of 
Probabilities  is,  that  if  there  is  no  assignable  rea- 
son why  a  given  event  should  occur  in  one  way 
rather  than  in  another,  then  in  a  large  number  of 
cases  of  such  an  event,  it  will  occur  about  equally 
often  in  both  ways  ;  and  the  larger  the  number 
of  cases,  the  nearer  the  approach  to  equality.  For 
example,  if  a  penny  is  tossed  carelessly  into  the 
air  a  million  of  times,  it  will  fall  about  as  many 


I40  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

times  on  one  face  as  on  the  other.  In  any  given 
case  of  toss-up,  one  result  is,  a  priori,  just  as  likely 
as  the  other.  No  reason  can  be  assigned  why 
this  result  should  appear  rather  than  that.  Both 
results  are  evidently  equally  consistent  with  the 
nature  of  things,  and  with  the  general  tenor  of 
circumstances  and  experience.  So  we  are  quite 
sure  that  in  a  multitude  of  toss-ups  both  sorts  of 
results  will  occur  about  equally  often.  On  this 
principle  has  been  built  up,  with  the  aid  of  analyt- 
ical mathematics,  and  especially  of  what  is  called 
the  Calculus  of  Probabilities,  a  great  Science  which 
stands  proved  to  us  both  by  the  logic  of  geometry, 
and  the  logic  of  experience.  It  has  met  with 
splendid  success  in  its  numerous  applications  to 
other  Sciences,  and  to  the  affairs  of  actual  life. 
Its  conclusions  accord  wonderfully  with  observa- 
tion. It  is  found  perfectly  safe  to  venture  on 
them  enormous  sums  of  money ;  and  enormous 
interests  of  reputation,  social  economics,  and 
government.  Men  are  thus  venturing  every  day 
—  in  all  sorts  of  insurance  companies,  in  political 
philosophy,  in  judicial  proceedings,  in  historical 
criticism,  and  especially,  in  Astronomy  and  Gen- 
eral Physics.  Observational  Astronomy,  and  in- 
deed, all  the  Sciences  of  observation  and  experi- 


DOCTRINE  OF  CHANCES.  141 

ment,  are  getting  to  build  greatly  on  the  new 
Science.  It  is  hard  to  say  what  class  of  intelli- 
gent men  build  on  it  with  the  greatest  readiness 
and  conviction.  Philosophers,  statesmen,  general 
scholars,  men  of  affairs  —  all  freely  unite  in  ad- 
mitting its  principles  and  in  doing  them  the  high- 
est possible  honor,  that  of  trusting  their  most 
valued  interests  to  them.  Prominent  among  these 
are  the  leading  friends  of  the  Law  Hypothesis. 
These  are  the  men  who  profess  to  hope  some  day, 
largely  by  means  of  the  Science  of  Probabilities, 
to  extend  the  reign  of  known  law  over  the  whole 
domain  of  social,  mental,  and  moral  facts.  Of 
course  they  should  be  the  last  persons  to  find 
fault  with  conclusions  carefully  drawn  from  a 
science  on  which  they  themselves  lean  so  heavily. 

Let  us  examine  some  of  these  conclusions. 

1.  If  matter  is  self -organizing —  if  it  has  in  it- 
self certain  properties  by  sole  virtue  of  zvhich,  in 
more  or  less  of  time,  the  atoms  come  together  into 
all  the  organic  forms  of  nature  —  then  we  ought  to 
find  no  chasms,  especially  no  zuide  chasms,  between 
different  sorts  of  organic  beings ;  but  they  should 
be  seen  shading  away  into  each  other  in  every 
direction  by  insensible  differences. 

This    has    already   been   inferred   from    certain 


I42  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

physiological  and  historical  considerations.  I  now 
infer  it  independently  from  the  Science  of  Prob- 
abilities. Conceive  such  transition  forms  as  nat- 
urally fill  the  space  between  two  given  organic 
species.  All  these  middle  forms  are,  intrinsically 
and  circumstantially,  just  as  possible  and  easy,  and 
so  just  as  credible,  as  the  two  extreme  forms.  In 
advance  of  a  given  construction,  whether  by  a  short 
or  long  process,  the  chances  are  just  as  good  for 
one  of  those  as  for  one  of  these.  There  is  no  assign- 
able reason  why  one  should  occur  rather  than  the 
other.  Both  are  equally  consistent  with  the  pos- 
sibilities and  facilities  and  likelihoods  of  Nature. 
In  fact,  it  is  a  pure  toss-up  which  it  shall  be  —  as 
much  so  as  it  is  which  face  shall  fall  uppermost 
when  a  penny  is  carelessly  cast  into  the  air. 
Hence  it  follows  that,  in  innumerable  cases  of 
construction,  we  ought  to  have  as  many  examples 
of  each  transitional  form  as  of  each  of  the  others. 
It  is  vastly  improbable  —  millions  of  chances  to 
one  —  that  there  should  be  millions  of  examples 
of  the  one,  and  absolutely  none  at  all  of  the  other. 
So  there  ought  to  be  no  organic  gaps  about  us  ; 
none  between  species,  and  none  between  genera 
or  kingdoms.  Wherever  we  take  our  stand,  we 
ought  to  see  countless  long  lines  of  closely-graded 


DOCTRINE  OF  CHANCES.  143 

organisms  stretching  away  from  us  in  every  direc- 
tion. How  poorly  this  agrees  with  facts  you 
know. 

But  the  Law  Hypothesis,  as  commonly  held, 
not  only  supposes  that  Nature  organizes  itself,  but 
that  it  organizes  itself  in  a  given  way.  It  sup- 
poses that  matter  first  brings  itself  into  certain 
small  and  rude  organic  forms,  and  then  gradually 
improves  these  forms  through  long  successions  of 
individuals  and  ages.  Thus  man  shades  away 
through  the  strata,  by  insensible  structural  differ- 
ences, toward  the  worm  or  some  other  less  prom- 
ising first  ancestor.  The  succession  is  that  of  a 
line,  and  not  that  of  a  ladder  —  much  less  that  of 
a  ladder  whose  rounds  are  so  far  apart  that  no 
human  skill  and  patience  could  ever  pass  a  being 
from  one  round  to  another.  So  of  the  other  or- 
ganic races.  Each  has  reached  its  present  state 
through  a  succession  of  individuals  which  shade 
away  into  each  other  by  minute  structural  differ- 
ences, and  so  form  a  continuous  line  of  connection 
with  some  rude  mite  of  a  protozoon. 

What  says  the  Science  of  Probabilities  to  this  ? 
It  says  that,  since  each  of  these  intermediate  types 
is  just  as  likely  to  be  present  and  just  as  likely  to 
be  discovered  as  are  its  next  neighbors  on  both 


144  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

sides  of  it,  it  follows  that  in  case  of  a  vast  number 
of  individuals  of  each  type  we  ought  to  find  as 
many  of  one  type  as  of  another  ;  and  it  would  be 
vastly  improbable  —  millions  of  chances  to  one  — 
that  we  should  find  millions  of  one  sort,  and  ab- 
solutely none  at  all  of  its  neighbors  ;  still  more  im- 
probable that  this  should  happen  everywhere  along 
that  prodigious  line  of  development ;  more  improb- 
able still  that  this  should  happen  everywhere  on 
all  the  myriads  of  such  lines  which  exist  ;  in  fine, 
infinitely  improbable  that  we  should  not  find  a 
single  considerable  fraction  of  a  single  one  of 
these  long  and  many  lines  that  pierce  at  all  points 
the  domain  of  our  fossil  Geology.  And  yet  Ge- 
ology finds  not  a  single  such  fraction. 

So  much  for  organic  perpendiculars.  But  the 
Doctrine  of  Chances  has  also  something  to  say  of 
organic  horizontals.  It  says  that  the  different 
races  of  plants  and  animals,  coexisting  now  or  in 
any  past  time,  ought  to  be  found  melting  into 
each  other  as  the  seasons  melt  into  each  other  — 
it  ought  to  be  so  if  the  common  form  of  the  Law 
Hypothesis  is  true.  For,  since  there  is,  a  priori, 
no  reason  why  any  given  protozob'n  should  have  a 
nature  or  circumstances  leading  in  one  direction 
rather  than  in  another  across  the  field  of  actual 


DOCTRINE  OF  CHANCES.  1 45 

organic  life,  in  the  case  of  an  infinite  number  of 
protozoa  all  directions  would  be  equally  taken,  and 
the  total  protozoic  life  would  be  radiate  —  would 
be  like  a  star  shooting  out  its  light  or  its  gravity 
toward  all  points  of  the  sphere.  All  gaps  would 
be  forestalled  ;  no  partialities  would  be  shown  to 
certain  forms  of  organic  being  existing  at  any 
epoch  above  the  equally  possible,  easy,  and  credi- 
ble intermediate  forms  ;  at  the  present  time  and 
in  every  past  age,  parallel  and  transverse  lines  of 
development,  touching  and  crossing  each  other 
everywhere,  would  give  us  a  seamless  web  of  or- 
ganisms undistinguishable  into  such  groups  as  we 
call  species,  genera,  and  so  on. 

Nothing  can  be  plainer  than  the  immense  con- 
tradiction of  these  conclusions  to  the  facts  of  our 
own  living  times.  Do  the  organic  races  now  liv- 
ing run  together  and  confuse  all  their  outlines  as 
do  day  and  night,  and  as  all  objects  seem  to  do  in 
the  twilight  ?  You  know  how  different  this  is 
from  the  fact.  Organic  groups  do,  indeed,  some- 
times very  delicately  approach  each  other,  so  that 
one  is  in  doubt  whether  they  ought  not  to  be 
classed  together  and  called  by  one  specific  name. 
Each  species  has  its  varieties  which  do  melt  into 
each  other   almost  as    the  hours  melt  into    each 


146  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

other.  By  putting  these  varieties  together  we  can 
make  a  short  organic  chain,  a  few  tiny  links  long, 

—  a  short  organic  line,  consisting  of  a  few  dots 
that  touch  each  other.     But  then  comes  a  break 

—  an  indisputable  chasm  for  which  no  occupants 
can  be  found  by  our  most  careful  researches  — 
and  then,  almost  immediately,  another  break  ;  and 
so  on,  until  that  long  continuous  line  of  organic 
groups  structurally  touching  each  other,  which  has 
been  so  surely  promised  us,  millions  of  chances  to 
one,  turns  out  to  be,  instead  of  a  line,  a  succession 
of  chasms,  sometimes  of  enormous  dimensions. 
The  chasms  amount  to  vastly  more  than  the  occu- 
pied spaces.  So  it  is  on  all  the  promised  lines  — 
chasms,  chasms,  hardly  anything  but  chasms. 
Those  between  species  are  generally  very  marked  ; 
between  genera,  still  more  marked.  And  so  the 
intervals  go  on  widening  through  families  and 
orders  and  classes  and  branches  and  kingdoms. 
What  a  space  between  the  Vertebrates  and  the 
Mollusks  or  Radiates  ?  What  a  space  between 
the  animal  and  the  vegetable  kingdom  —  between 
things  potential  with  sensation  and  volition  and 
intelligence,  and  things  wholly  vacant  of  these 
wonderful  properties  ?  Above  all,  what  a  space 
between  the  organic  and  the  inorganic  —  between 


BR  OKEN  CHA  INS.  1 4  7 

things  having  life,  growth,  power  of  reproduction, 
and  things  having  absolutely  nothing  of  these  at- 
tributes. This  last  chasm  is  a  great  black  gulf 
across  which  things  look  hopelessly  at  each  other, 
and  scarcely  interchange  intelligible  signals.  If 
species  are  separated  as  satellites  of  the  same 
planet  are  separated,  then  genera  are  separated  as 
planets  of  the  same  sun,  orders  as  suns  of  the  same 
cluster,  branches  as  clusters  of  the  same  nebula, 
kingdoms  as  nebulae  of  the  same  universe. 

And  the  same  broken  character  that  is  seen  in 
the  organic  being  of  our  own  time,  and  has  been 
seen  in  all  the  times  of  history,  is  found  prevailing 
in  all  the  fossil  ages.  These  ages  were  not  so 
hard  on  bones  and  trees  as  are  our  phosphate-sell- 
ing and  timber-cutting  times.  And  yet  the  hiatus 
is  regnant  among  them  as  among  ourselves. 
Nowhere  are  the  different  sorts  of  plants  and  ani- 
mals found  gently  shading  into  each  other  on  long 
unbroken  lines,  whether  horizontal  or  perpendicu- 
lar, whether  running  through  successive  ages  or 
along  the  expanse  of  the  same  age.  No  consider- 
able fractions,  even,  of  such  lines  appear.  Accord- 
ing to  the  Science  of  Probabilities,  this  is  alto- 
gether incredible,  if  the  Law  Hypothesis  is  true. 
There  is  an  infinite  balance  of  chances  against  it 


I48  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

And  this  is  the  same  thing  as  saying  that  it  is  in- 
finitely improbable  that  the  Law  Hypothesis  is 
true  :  which  is  the  same  thing  as  saying  that  it  is 
infinitely  probable  that  organic  Nature  came  from 
God.  The  Law  Hypothesis  is  the  only  rival  of 
our  Theism. 

2.  If  Nature  is  self -organizing,  we  ought  to  see 
numerous  organisms  of  all  sorts  and  of  the  larger 
sizes  spontaneously  occurring  around  us. 

It  is  claimed  —  and  it  is  convenient  to  claim 
—  that  the  instances  of  spontaneous  genera- 
tion, though  many,  are  always  among  exceed- 
ingly small,  if  not  microscopic,  objects.  At  first 
thought,  this  would  seem  very  unlikely  in  a  scheme 
of  mere  blind  Nature.  Pray,  why  should  such  a 
Nature  exclusively  choose  the  twilight  region  of 
infinitesimals  for  her  creations  ?  And  when  we 
come  to  formally  question  the  Theory  of  Chances 
in  regard  to  the  matter,  we  learn  that  if  Nature 
spontaneously  generates  organic  beings  at  all,  she 
generates  many  of  them  in  such  size  and  number 
and  way  as  to  force  the  fact  on  the  notice  of  the 
most  careless  observer.  Indeed,  we  get  so  far  as 
to  learn  that  there  are  millions  of  chances  to  one 
against  spontaneous  generation  being  confined  to 
the  microscopic  and  twilight  world.      Once  grant 


SPONTANEOUS  MINIMS.  149 

that  atoms  of  matter  can  of  themselves  come  to- 
gether into  some  sort  of  a  living  organism,  and 
the  way  is  broadly  open  to  admit  that  they  can 
come  together  into  any  living  forms  that  we  see. 
In  going  so  far,  we  have  gone  beyond  all  the  dif- 
ficulties of  the  case.  These  lie  altogether  in  the 
nature  of  living  organism  —  not  at  all  in  its  size 
or  grade  or  rate  of  formation.  One  number  of 
organizing  atoms  is  intrinsically  as  credible  as  an- 
other. One  grade  of  organizing  properties  is  in- 
trinsically as  credible  as  another  grade.  One  rate 
of  formation  is  intrinsically  just  as  credible  as  an- 
other rate.  The  same  general  sort  of  properties 
that  suffices  to  make  the  lowest  organic  living 
thing,  will,  when  merely  hightened  in  degree, 
suffice  to  make  the  highest.  And  this  extra  de- 
gree, considered  as  belonging  to  eternal  atoms,  is 
just  as  conceivable,  just  as  self-consistent,  just  as 
consistent  with  a  scheme  of  such  atoms,  as  an- 
other degree.  Hence  it  is  just  as  possible  and 
easy,  and  so  just  as  credible  in  the  nature  of 
things,  for  atoms  to  have  natures  tending  to  an 
elaborate  organization  as  to  a  rude  one,  to  a  large 
organization  as  to  one  that  is  microscopic,  to  a 
swiftly  formed  organization  as  to  one  that  ripens 
through  a  million  of  years.     There  is  no  assign- 


150  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

able  reason  why  one  should  be  produced  rather 
than  the  other.  It  is  an  even  chance  between 
them.  In  advance  of  a  spontaneous  organization 
it  would  be  a  pure  toss-up  what  it  would  be, 
whether  large  or  small,  slowly  or  swiftly  formed, 
high  or  low  in  the  scale  of  organization  —  as  pure 
a  toss-up  as  when  a  penny  is  spun  carelessly  up- 
ward. Accordingly  a  vast  number  of  such  or- 
ganizations would  give  us  as  many  spontaneous 
generations  of  large,  elaborate,  and  swiftly  formed 
structures  as  of  the  opposite  sorts.  But  the  latter, 
according  to  the  Law  Hypothesis,  are  all  the  while 
occurring  about  us. 

Therefore,  mature  trees,  cattle,  men  should  all 
the  while  come  into  being  around  us  without  any 
perceptible  cause  —  sometimes  as  suddenly  as 
they  say  Pallas  started  from  the  head  of  Jupiter, 
Venus  from  the  sea-foam,  Arabian  or  Norse  pal- 
aces under  the  wands  of  mighty  magicians.  In 
other  cases,  the  process  of -structure  would  pro- 
ceed more  slowly,  and  philosophers  could  stand 
and  leisurely  watch  it  through  all  its  stages. 
Clouds  of  atoms  would  visibly  seek  their  fellows 
—  bones,  muscles,  sinews  would  visibly  take 
shape  and  size  —  the  largest  and  most  elaborate 
fauna  and  flora  would  be  spontaneously  built  up 


SPONTANEOUS  MINIMS.  I  5  I 

under  our  eye,  as  men  seemed  to  be  in  the  vision 
of  the  Hebrew  prophet :  "  A  noise,  and  behold 
a  shaking  and  the  bones  came  together,  bone  to 
his  bone  ;  and  when  I  beheld,  lo,  the  sinews  and 
the  flesh  came  upon  them  and  the  skin  covered 
them  above."  In  some  such  way  the  larger  plants 
and  animals  would  profusely  build  themselves  up 
in  full  blaze  of  day.  Instead  of  occurring  always 
in  the  dim  Debatable  Land  of  microscopic  life 
where  nothing  is  easier  than  mistake,  these  spon- 
taneous constructions  would  as  often  occur  in  the 
very  center  and  focus  of  our  field  of  observation. 

There  is  no  lack  of  material  anywhere  about 
us.  It  is  as  plentiful  as  water  and  common  earth. 
This  is  the  stuff  we  are  made  of.  The  matter 
that  composes  all  these  organic  beings  is,  to  an 
immense  extent,  loose  in  the  soil ;  dissolved  in 
the  water  ;  diffused  through  the  air  ;  at  liberty 
in  impalpable  dust  and  smoke  and  vapors  and 
gases  ;  moving  its  atoms  freely  about  among  each 
other  in  all  conceivable  ways  of  approach,  contact, 
and  association.  Indeed,  the  very  same  atoms 
that  once  were  organic  beings  make  up  a  large 
part  of  the  loose  surface  of  the  world,  and  even 
whole  compacted  Geologic  beds.  In  cases  not  a 
few,  we  have  together  in  a  state  of  great  freedom, 


152  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

all  the  elements  composing  a  given  plant  or  ani- 
mal —  as  when  wood  or  coal  is  burned,  or  men 
decompose  by  the  fires  of  autos-da-fe  and  of 
crowded  battle-fields. 

Do  we  see  this  adult  sort  of  spontaneous  gen- 
eration ?  Have  we  ever  heard  of  its  being  seen 
in  all  historic  time  ?  And  yet  we  should  both 
hear  of  and  personally  see  it  to  an  immense  ex- 
tent—  the  Law  Hypothesis  being  true.  Millions 
on  millions  of  large  and  elaborate  structures 
ought  to  appear  spontaneously,  instead  of  none. 
They  ought  to  abound  as  the  microscopic  sponta- 
neous beings  are  supposed  to  abound.  Hence, 
millions  to  one,  the  Law  Hypothesis  is  not  true. 
And  so  our  Science  affirms  again  that  the  only 
competing  hypothesis  is  infinitely  probable  — 
that  it  is  infinitely  probable  that  God  is  the  Au- 
thor of  Nature. 

3.  If  Nature  is  self -organizing,  we  ought  to  see 
every iv here  about  us  natural  Disjecta  Membra  — 
odds  and  ends  of  abortive  organic  beings  of  all 
sorts. 

We  should  see  not  only  complete  plants  and 
animals  spontaneously  formed,  but  also  separate 
fractions  of  such  beings.  For  example,  we  should 
see   scatteied   about    disconnected   arms,    hands, 


DISJECTA  MEMBRA.  I  53 

legs,  feet,  teeth,  hearts,  heads,  trunks  ;  not  the 
ruins  of  completed  organisms,  but  what  seem  like 
unsuccessful  attempts  at  such  organisms.  We 
ought  to  find  such  organic  fractions  in  all  stages 
of  progress  —  formed,  forming,  inchoate  —  and 
in  great  numbers.  So  says  the  Science  of  Proba- 
bilities. At  first  glance,  one  would  say  that  a 
scheme  of  mere  Nature  would  not  be  likely  to 
confine  its  spontaneous  generations  to  complete 
beings.  Why  should  it  ?  Why  should  it  incline 
to  completeness  rather  than  to  incompleteness  ? 
Is  it  not  intuitively  certain  that  there  is  nothing 
in  the  nature  of  a  scheme  of  blind  eternal  atoms 
requiring  it  to  affect  wholes  rather  than  parts  ? 
To  be  sure,  the  parts  might  be  useless  and  un- 
able to  live.  But  what  of  that  ?  Would  it  be  out 
of  character  for  a  blind  Nature  to  make  some  use- 
less and  dead  things  ?  And,  further,  is  it  not 
absolutely  certain  that  such  wholes  as  might  be 
affected  would  be  largely  counteracted  and  muti- 
lated while  on  their  way  to  realization  ?  Nature 
is  full  of  counteractions.  Forces  meet  and  neu- 
tralize each  other  on  all  hands.  Chemistry  founds 
itself  on  the  victories  and  defeats  of  contending 
forces.  The  harmony  and  stability  in  astronom- 
ical regions   come  from  the   equilibrium  of  con- 


154  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

tending  forces.  All  organized  bodies,  sooner  or 
later,  are  destroyed  in  the  contest  between  the 
forces  that  favor  and  the  forces  that  oppose  or- 
ganic life.  Hence,  in  advance  of  a  given  organ- 
ization, there  is  no  assignable  reason,  either  in 
the  nature  of  things  or  in  the  actual  working  of 
Nature,  why  it  should  be  complete  rather  than 
incomplete  —  so  a  pure  toss-up  —  but  rather  a 
reason  why  it  should  be  partly  suppressed  by  the 
counteracting  forces  which  are  known  to  exist  all 
around  in  great  profusion  and  strength.  On  the 
whole,  the  incomplete  structure  is  greatly  the 
more  likely  of  the  two.  For  there  are  a  thousand 
forms  of  incompleteness  to  one  of  completeness  ; 
a  thousand  fractions  to  one  whole ;  and  each  of 
these  fractions  is,  at  least,  quite  as  likely  to  occur 
as  the  whole  organism.  Consequently,  there  is  a 
host  of  chances  to  one  that  the  organism  will  be 
partial.  Thus  in  any  single  instance  of  organiza- 
tion. In  the  innumerable  such  instances  during 
present  and  historic  time,  there  would,  according 
to  the  Science  of  Probabilities,  occur  vastly,  vastly 
more  fractions  than  integers.  Wholes  would  be 
the  exception,  pieces  the  rule.  It  would  be  a 
world  of  seeming  organic  debris.  It  would  be  a 
tremendous  miscellany  of  fragments.      No  Arma- 


DISJECTA  MEMBRA,  1 55 

geddon    of  a   battle-field    would    present  a  more 
dreadful  aspect. 

Lift  up  your  eyes.  Buds,  branches,  roots, 
veins,  arms,  eyes,  brains,  lungs,  hearts  ;  all  sorts 
of  Disjecta  Membra  as  separate  as  they  are  pic- 
tured on  our  anatomical  charts  ;  sometimes  em- 
bryonic, and  sometimes  rounded  out  into  the 
ripeness  of  a  finished  organization  ;  sometimes 
fresh  and  dripping  with  the  sap  of  the  algae,  and 
sometimes  fresh  and  dripping  with  blood  as  blue 
as  ever  coursed  under  the  white  skin  of  a  Plan- 
tagenet  —  see  them  falling  through  the  air,  float- 
ing in  the  water,  stirring  in  the  sod  !  Here  you 
see  the  horns  of  an  ox  ripening  apart  from  the 
ox  itself,  there  by  itself  the  hoof  of  a  horse,  yon- 
der the  proboscis  of  an  elephant,  yonder  still  the 
feather  of  an  ostrich,  and  still  yonder  the  brow  of 
a  man.  Armless  hands  such  as  say,  Behold,  in 
newspapers  and  on  guide  boards,  or  such  as  is 
said  to  have  written  the  doom  of  Belshazzar  ;  bod- 
iless heads  such  as  are  painted  on  our  canvas  ; 
busts  and  torsos  such  as  are  hewn  in  our  mar- 
bles ;  fleshless  skeletons  such  as  might  stand  for 
ancient  Time  himself;  single  bones  as  if  from 
plundered  reliquaries  and  catacombs  —  all  such 
dreadful  spontaneous  creations  stare  at  us  in  our 


156  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

walks,  especially  from  amid  the  great  decomposi- 
tions of  laboratories,  conflagrations,  cemeteries, 
and  marshes.  The  Dismal  Swamps,  the  burning 
Moscows,  the  plagued  Londons,  the  steaming 
Pere  la  Chaises,  show  something  more  startling 
than  ignes  fatui.  It  is  as  if  the  museums  of  Com- 
parative Anatomy  had  been  sacked  and  scattered 
by  unscrupulous  vandals.  It  is  as  if  the  mem- 
ories of  ancient  surgeons  and  tyrants  and  butch- 
ers had  been  emptied  into  the  objective  all 
around  us. 

So  it  would  be  in  case  the  Law  Hypothesis 
were  true.  The  Science  of  Probabilities  stands 
voucher.  Have  we,  as  travelers  or  historians, 
ever  become  aware  of  such  wonders  ?  Has  any 
Gonzalo,  in  any  land,  had  occasion  to  say,  in 
presence  of  such  things  and  with  hair  on  end, 
"  All  torment,  trouble,  wonder,  and  amazement 
inhabit  here :  some  Heavenly  Power  guide  us 
out  of  this  fearful  country  !  "  Has  a  single  well- 
authenticated  example  of  such  fragments  of  nat- 
ural creation  ever  come  to  the  knowledge  of  man- 
kind ?  Not  a  single  example.  As  we  have  seen, 
this  could  never  have  happened  under  a  scheme 
of  mere  Law.  The  chances  are  millions  to  one 
against  it.     Hence  the  Law  Scheme  is  infinitely 


O  VERLAPPJNGS  OF  SPECIES.  \  5  7 

improbable.  That  is  to  say,  our  Science  espouses 
the  Theistic  branch  of  the  dilemma,  and  declares 
it  infinitely  probable  that  God  is  the  Author  of 
Nature. 

4.  If  Nature  is  self-organizing,  we  ought  to  see 
very  many  and  striki?ig  overlappings  and  dovetail- 
ings  of  the  different  sorts  of  plants  and  animals 
among  themselves. 

We  should  not  only  see  these  different  sorts  del- 
icately approach  each  other  so  as  to  have  no  per- 
ceptible interval  between  them,  but  we  should  see 
them  superinduced  on,  and  mortised  into  each 
other  in  a  great  variety  of  striking  ways.  For  ex- 
ample, the  head  of  one  animal  would  be  set  on  the 
body  of  another,  the  wings  of  a  bird  on  the  body 
of  a  quadruped,  the  legs  of  a  brute  on  the  body  of 
a  man  —  and  so  on,  until  no  earthly  animal  could 
be  identified  by  any  one  of  its  members.  Cuvier 
could  not  tell  a  lion  by  his  paw,  or  even  a  donkey 
by  his  ears. 

Conceive  of  a  lion  with  the  wings  of  an  eagle  — 
a  conception  very  common  to  the  writings  and 
sculptures  of  many  nations.  Is  not  this  griffin  as 
easy  to  a  scheme  of  mere  naturalism,  as  is  either 
of  the  animal  types  contributing  to  it  ?  Is  it  not 
as  easily  conceivable  ?     Is    it   not   quite  as  self- 


I  58  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

consistent  ?  Is  it  not  fully  as  consistent  with  a 
scheme  of  blind  eternal  atoms  ?  Pray,  why  is  it 
not  ?  Who  can  show  why  it  is  not  ?  Would  any 
sane  man  undertake  to  show  cause  why  blind 
eternal  atoms  cannot  as  well  incline  to  this  fa- 
miliar griffin,  or  indeed,  to  any  of  a  thousand  simi- 
lar overlapping  constructions  which  might  be  men- 
tioned, as  to  any  other  ?  Indeed,  it  is  absolutely 
certain  —  as  certain  as  Euclid's  axioms  —  that 
there  is  no  such  cause  ;  that  there  is  absolutely 
nothing  in  the  idea  of  blind  eternal  atoms  that  is 
not  just  as  compatible  with  their  having  natures 
tending  toward  those  composite  forms  imagined 
by  poets  and  artists,  as  toward  those  actually 
found  in  Nature.  Intuitively,  the  one  sort  is  just 
as  credible  in  all  respects  as  the  other.  One  could 
live  as  well  as  the  other.  The  chances  for  both, 
as  parts  of  an  actual  living  Nature,  are  equal.  In 
advance  of  a  given  organization  —  whether  by  a 
short  or  long  process,  whether  by  direct  sponta- 
neous generation  or  through  protozoa  and  an 
enormously  protracted  development  —  it  is  a  pure 
toss-up  which  it  will  be  ;  as  pure  a  toss-up  as 
when  a  penny  flies  aloft  from  a  careless  hand. 
Nay,  this  statement  fails  to  do  justice  to  the  case. 
The  world  is  full  of  counteractions.     Miscarriages 


O  VEKLA  PPINGS  OF  SPE  CIES.  I  5  9 

abound  like  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore.  And 
were  the  atoms  to  tend  constitutionally  only  to 
such  an  organism  as  does  not  overlap  another, 
they  would,  to  say  the  least,  be  quite  as  likely  as 
not  to  miscarry  on  their  way  to  such  organization 
through  the  maze  of  contending  currents  ;  would 
be  quite  as  likely  as  not  to  get  misplaced  and  mis- 
joined  among  the  similar  organisms  cotempo- 
raneously  forming  in  the  same  neighborhood.  So 
that,  on  the  whole,  the  chances  are  greatly  in 
favor  of  an  overlapping  organism.  The  griffin  is 
far  more  likely  to  occur  than  the  lion  or  the  eagle. 
Hence,  in  an  infinite  number  of  such  organizations, 
there  ought  to  be  many  more  examples  of  these 
poetical  forms  than  of  others  :  and  the  probabili- 
ties are  millions  and  even  infinites  to  one  against 
our  finding  no  such  forms  whatever.  But  we  find 
none  whatever.  The  superposition  of  one  species 
of  plants  or  animals  on  another  exists  only  in  the 
vision  of  poets  and  allegorists,  or  in  the  dead  cre- 
ations of  painters  and  sculptors.  No  centaur,  part 
man  and  part  horse,  gallops  on  our  highways  — 
no  mermaid,  part  woman  and  part  fish,  swims  in 
our  seas  —  no  minotaur,  part  man  and  part  ox, 
roams  over  our  pastures  —  no  cecrops,  part  man 
and  part  serpent,  glides   among  our  rocks  —  no 


l60  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

faun  nor  satyr,  part  man  and  part  goat,  frolics  in 
our  glades  —  no  harpy,  part  woman  and  part  bird,; 
no  hippogriff,  part  horse  and  part  bird,  flies  in  our 
air  —  no  chimera,  part  lion  and  part  goat  and  part 
dragon,  anywhere  frightens  our  children  or  our 
men.  In  our  forests  we  cut  no  trees  that  bleed, 
and  weep,  and  complain  with  human  voices.  In 
our  homes,  we  are  happy  to  know,  are  no  women 
whose  tresses  are  snakes.  Nowhere  among  the 
haunts  of  men  appears  a  man  with  horns  like 
the  Moses  of  Michael  Angelo,  or  with  bird-head 
like  an  Egyptian  idol,  or  with  horns  and  hoofs  and 
tail  like  the  medieval  Satan.  No  errant  ^Eneas,  nor 
Perseus,  nor  Hercules,  nor  Rinaldo  —  off  on  his 
adventures  —  finds  such  things  to  smite  in  even 
outlandish  places.  Such  men  have  no  chance  to 
ply  their  vocation.  They  never  did  have.  They 
have  always  been  out  of  date.  Never  a  single 
instance  of  such  grotesque  monsters — grotesque 
and  monstrous  only  because  unfound  in  Nature  — 
has  been  met  with  in  any  land,  or  in  any  historic 
ages,  or  in  any  fossiliferous  stratum.  This  would 
not  be  so  if  the  Law  Hypothesis  were  true.  Myr- 
iads of  millions  to  one  it  would  not  be  so  —  says 
the  Doctrine  of  Chances,  standing  with  one  foot 
on  irrefragable  Geometry  and  the  other  on  equally 


I M  PRO  PR  IE  TIES  OF  STR  UCTURE.  \  6 1 

irrefragable  Experience,  and  holding  up  to  the 
noon  of  our  time  the  vouchers  of  her  splendid 
successes.  Let  every  corporator  in  an  insurance 
company  hear  —  hear  every  person  who  gets  in- 
sured —  hear  every  social  philosopher  and  statis- 
tician —  hear  every  scientific  man  who  takes  the 
mean  of  a  number  of  observations,  whether  in 
Astronomy  or  Geology  or  any  other  science  of 
observation  !  Hear  that  the  Law  Hypothesis  is 
beyond  measure  incredible.  And  let  this  be  the 
same  thing  to  you  as  hearing  that  the  only  com- 
peting doctrine,  which  announces  God  as  the  Au- 
thor of  Nature,  is  bright  with  immeasurable  like- 
lihood. 

5.  If  Natter e  is  self -organizing,  we  ought  to  see 
about  us  innumerable  improprieties  of  natural  con- 
structioji  —  redundant,  inadequate,  puerile,  absurd, 
and  horrid  organisms  vastly  more  numerous  than 
those  of  the  opposite  character. 

For  example,  species  of  animals  with  more  or 
less  legs  than  they  can  use  ;  or  with  necks  too 
short  for  conveniently  reaching  the  pasture  ;  or 
with  eyes  in  the  feet  instead  of  the  head  ;  or  with 
stomachs  fit  only  for  grass,  while  the  teeth  are 
carnivorous  ;  or  with  forms  and  faces  as  hideous 
as  sometimes  appear  in  dreams,  deliriums,  and 
caricature  prints  of  the  day. 


1 62  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

Can  any  claim  that  such  animals  cannot  be  as 
easily  conceived  of  as  any  ;  would  not  be  just  as 
self-consistent,    considered    as    mere    structures  ; 
would  not  be  just  as  consistent  with  that  general 
idea  of  Nature  which  underlies  the  Law  Hypothe- 
sis ?     To  be  sure,  some  of  these  might  not  be  able 
to  continue  to  live  :  but  all  of  them  could  begin  to 
live,  or  at  least  to  exist  as  dead  organisms.     Pray, 
why  not  ?     Apart  from  a  wise  designer,  is  not  an 
eternal  impropriety  just  as  possible  and  easy  to 
the    nature   of  things,  as    an    eternal   propriety  ? 
Apart  from  a  wise  designer,  is  there  any  assign- 
able reason  in  the  wide  universe  why  there  cannot 
be  atoms  that  constitutionally  tend  to  puerile,  ab- 
surd, and  hideous  combinations,  as  well  as  to  com- 
binations that  are  philosophic,  exquisite,  and  beau- 
tiful ?     Evidently  not.     The  axioms  of  Geometry 
are  not  plainer.     In  advance  of  a  given  construc- 
tion, it  is  a  pure  toss-up  what  it  will  be  —  whether 
desirable  or  undesirable,  foolish  or  wise,  horrid  or 
attractive  —  as   pure  a  toss-up  as  when  a  penny 
flies  aloft  from  a  careless  hand.     Nay,  this  is  an 
understatement  of  the  truth.     The  chaos  of  dis- 
turbing forces  is  to  be  taken  into  account.     Each 
propriety  of  structure,  on  its  way  to  the  objective, 
is    liable  to  all    sorts    of  modifications    from  the 


IM  PRO  PR  IE  TIES  OF  S  TR  UCTURE.  1 63 

crowds  of  assailants  through  which  it  has  to  run 
the  gauntlet.  Quite  as  likely  as  not  it  will  get 
seriously  scarred  and  mutilated  in  the  attempt. 
So  that,  on  the  whole,  the  chances  are  greatly 
against  such  an  organism  as  wisdom  would 
choose.  And,  in  countless  cases  of  organization, 
we  should  be  sure  to  have  far  more  examples  of 
improprieties  than  of  proprieties  ;  far  more  super- 
fluities, deficiencies,  follies,  and  frights  of  struct- 
ure than  the  reverse.  We  should  be  sure  to  have 
infinite  examples  of  undesirable  organisms.  It 
would  be  infinitely  improbable  that  we  should  find 
only  a  few  of  them.  So  testifies  the  Science  of 
Probabilities. 

This  on  the  supposition  of  the  spontaneous 
generation  of  large  and  elaborate  organisms.  But 
the  argument  does  not  depend  on  this  supposi- 
tion. Whatever  mode  Nature  may  be  supposed 
to  take  in  realizing  the  proper  things  will  answer 
just  as  well  for  realizing  great  numbers  of  the 
improper.  For  example,  the  mode  supposed  in 
the  Development  Hypothesis.  It  is  true  that 
some  structures  may  be  supposed  so  improper 
and  ill-adapted  that  they  could  not  be  perpet- 
uated, or  even  live ;  and  so  could  never  have 
belonged   to    such   lines    of   development    as   the 


1 64  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

evolutionist  imagines.  But  there  are  infinite 
structures  of  this  class  that  could  have  belonged 
to  them — just  as  easily  as  any  —  all  the  carica- 
ture forms,  all  the  redundant  forms,  all  the  forms 
in  which  certain  unfitnesses  for  "  the  struggle 
for  life  "  are  compensated,  or  more  than  compen- 
sated, by  certain  special  fitnesses.  For  the  mere 
functions  of  living  and  strife,  forms  answering  to 
those  of  our  comic  journals  are  just  as  eligible  as 
more  symmetrical  and  beautiful  forms.  Some 
man  with  a  hundred  hands,  some  hydra  with  fifty 
heads,  some  bison  with  a  score  of  eyes  or  ears  or 
horns,  would,  other  things  being  equal,  have  spe- 
cial facilities  for  making  his  way  in  the  world,  and 
for  helping  competitors  to  make  their  way  out  of 
it.  And  that  bison  with  neck  too  short  to  reach 
the  pasture,  so  that  he  must  kneel  whenever  he 
would  eat,  might  have  this  disadvantage  as  re- 
gards competitors  more  than  fairly  offsetted  by  a 
tougher  skin,  a  better  ear,  or  a  larger  muscle 
than  theirs.  So  that  on  whatever  scheme  Nature 
may  be  supposed  to  organize,  we  ought  to  see 
around  us  innumerable  examples  of  such  outland- 
ish constructions  as  have  been  mentioned.  We 
ought  to  see  far  more  of  these  than  of  others  ;  be- 
cause   there  are  a  thousand  conceivable  organic 


IMPROPRIETIES  OF  STRUCTURE.  1 65 

improprieties  to  one  such  propriety  ;  and  because 
each  propriety,  on  its  way  to  realization,  would 
have  to  make  its  way  for  millions  of  years  through 
one  continuous  tangled  wilderness  of  blind  object- 
ing forces. 

Now  what  do  we  actually  find  ?  Where  is  the 
famous  Monstrum  Horrendum  ?  Where  is  the 
Cyclops  with  one  round  eye  in  the  middle  of  his 
forehead  ?  Where  is  double-faced  Janus  ?  Where 
is  Geryon  of  the  three  bodies  ?  Where  Briareus 
fighting  with  a  hundred  hands,  or  Cerberus  bark- 
ing with  fifty  heads,  or  Hydra  hissing  with  nine  ? 
Where  is  the  dragon  of  St.  George — where  St. 
Patrick  going  about  with  his  head  under  his  arm  ? 
Where  is  horrid  Caliban  —  where  the  ogres  of 
fairy  tales  ?  Where  are  the  counterparts  of  those 
extreme  misshapes  which  children  form  with 
wanton  pencil  or  scissors  ;  or  with  which  Punch 
has  made  us  familiar  in  his  immense  caricatures  ; 
or  which  seem  to  stare  and  chatter  from  the  ceil- 
ing on  the  victim  of  delirium  tremens  ?  Imagine 
a  given  animal  changed  as  much  as  possible  as  to 
the  place  and  proportion  of  its  various  organs  — 
and  plainly  a  vast  number  of  such  changes  might 
be  made,  so  as  to  make  an  animal  as  monstrous 
as  ever  oppressed  our  breasts  in  nightmare,  with- 


1 66  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

out  doing  violence  to  the  conditions  of  a  living 
and  capitally  struggling  organization  —  who  ever 
fled  with  bristling  hair  from  such  an  animal  ? 
What  geologist  ever  found  the  remains  of  such 
in  the  bowels  of  the  rocks  ?  A  still  harder  ques- 
tion. Where  is  that  great  crowded  limbo  of  or- 
ganic improprieties  —  of  superfluities,  incongru- 
ities, puerilities,  and  absurdities  —  which  this 
world,  as  a  whole,  ought  to  be  ?  A  Limbo  Fatuo- 
mm — is  this  the  sort  of  Nature  that  blazes  in 
the  astronomical  systems,  or  waves  in  our  earthly 
gardens  and  fields  and  forests,  or  swarms  in  con- 
scious life  along  the  expanses  of  our  sea  and  air 
and  land  ?  Is  this  the  Nature  which  our  scien- 
tists study,  and  our  travelers  and  historians  re- 
late ?  Has  ever  pilgrim  come  to  such  an  outland- 
ish Nature  in  all  his  audacious  wanderings  among 
the  outlands  of  the  earth  ? 

You  know  how  strongly  such  questions  may  be 
answered.  Everybody  knows.  "  Faith,  Sir  Alonzo, 
you  need  not  fear :  when  we  were  boys,  who  would 
believe  that  there  were  mountaineers  dew-lapped 
like  bulls,  whose  throats  had  hanging  at  them  wal- 
lets of  flesh  ;  or  that  there  were  such  men  whose 
heads  stood  in  their  breasts  ? "  It  is  open  to  the 
most  casual  observation,  that   Nature  as  a  whole 


IMPR  0  PR  IE  Tl  ES  OF  S  TR  UC  TURK .  \Gj 

is  just  the  antipodes  of  that  inquired  for.  The 
actual  world  is  apart,  by  a  whole  sky,  from  that 
which  would  have  been  given  by  creating  Law. 
It  is  a  system  philosophic,  exquisite,  and  beauti- 
ful in  a  very  high  degree.  The  further  our  re- 
searches go  into  the  mechanism  and  physiology 
of  plants  and  animals,  the  louder  grows  the  call 
for  admiration.  Our  experience  in  this  direction 
has  already  become  so  great  that  we  know,  by  a 
most  commanding  induction,  that  the  tenor  of 
all  future  discoveries  will  be  the  same  ;  and  that, 
could  we  explore  down  to  the  uttermost  omegas 
of  natural  structure,  we  should  still  be  bound  to 
say,  "  Wonderful,  wonderful  adaptations  !  "  The 
world  is  no  Patent  Office  stuffed  with  all  sorts  of 
inventions,  good,  bad,  and  indifferent  :  it  is  rather 
a  Sydenham  of  prize  specimens  where  ripest  ar- 
tists may  roam  as  learners,  and  over  which  waves 
in  graceful  affidavit  of  approval  both  the  banner 
of  science  and  the  banner  of  the  Empire.  It  is 
a  superb  gallery  which  has  wisely  plundered  all 
ages  and  countries  for  the  choicest  works  of  the 
Great  Masters,  and  to  which  all  coming  ages  will 
go  for  inspiration  and  models.  From  kingdoms 
down  to  species  and  varieties  of  species,  there  is 
not  a  group  of  organic  beings  — I  say  group  — 


1 68  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

that  has  a  single  feature  of  construction  which  an 
artist  as  such  could  stigmatize  as  "  improper  "  — 
in  view  of  their  sphere  and  line  of  life.  Who  ever 
saw  a  species  of  animals  —  I  say  species  —  whose 
eyes  were  cubes  instead  of  ellipsoids,  opaque  in- 
stead of  transparent,  of  the  same  density  through- 
out instead  of  different  densities  ?  Who  ever 
found  a  species  with  ears  where  the  air  could  not 
reach  them,  or  with  necks  too  short  for  proper 
feeding,  or  with  the  retina  back  of  the  mouth 
instead  of  the  eye,  or  with  more  organs  than  it 
could  turn  to  account  ?  Indeed,  the  same  thing 
can  be  said  of  almost  every  individual  of  every 
species.  No  fault  can  be  found.  No  improve- 
ment can  be  suggested.  We  do  not  see  how  we 
can  either  prune  or  graft  the  being  to  advantage 
—  in  view  of  its  line  of  life.  In  all  that  bundle 
of  myriad  machinery  there  is  nothing  which  a 
careful  man  sees  his  way  clear  to  pronounce  ab- 
surd or  weak  or  unwise.  Such  an  economy  of 
means,  such  short  cuts  to  results,  and  yet  such 
entire  sufficiency  —  it  puts  to  shame  the  best 
machine  of  human  devising. 

And  it  is  only  at  very  great  intervals  that  we 
find  things  that  suggest  a  difficulty.  It  is  true 
that  we  often  find  things  the  use  of  which  we  do 


IMPR  OPRIE  TIES  OF  STR  UCTURE.  1 69 

not  know :  but  this  was  something  to  be  expected. 
It  is  true  that  sometimes  we  come  across  in  ma- 
ture individuals  rudimental  organs  which  seem  to 
be  doing  nothing  of  the  work  which  seems  to  be 
the  chief  business  of  the  organs  when  mature  — 
for  example,  incipient  teeth,  tails,  wings  —  but  who 
knows  that  the  chief  business  of  such  organs  is 
their  only  business,  and  that  in  their  incipient 
state  they  may  not  answer  excellently  well  some 
obscure  lesser  ends  in  the  complex  organism  ?  It 
is  true .  that  once  in  a  great  while  we  stumble  on 
a  lusus  naturcz,  a  malformation  and  even  mon 
strosity  :  but  such  cases  are  extremely  rare  for  so 
crowded  a  world  ;  are  plain  thwartings  of  the  con- 
structive forces  ;  are  plain  results  of  disease  or  of 
disordered  parental  structure,  and  are  soon  elimi- 
nated from  the  system.  They  are  an  admonition. 
They  signify  that  natural  organisms  can  get  out 
of  order.  They  proclaim  that  the  parental  econ- 
omy must  not  be  trifled  with.  Ravi  nantes  in  gur- 
gitc  vasto  —  they  proclaim  a  stormy  latitude,  and 
advise  all  mariners  to  prudence.  In  short,  they 
are  such  things  as  may  well  be  supposed  to  oc- 
cur occasionally  in  a  system  created  and  presided 
over  by  One  who  works  by  general  methods,  who 
sees  it  best  to  have   His  creatures  to  a  certain 


I/O  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

extent  mutually  dependent,  who  has  moral  as  well 
as  natural  uses  to  promote,  and  who  will  have  the 
whole  earthly  system  bear  some  marks  of  sym- 
pathy with  and  adaptation  to  that  moral  derange- 
ment which  has  crept  into  it. 

Such  is  actual  Nature.  An  incredible  Nature 
to  have  come  in  the  way  of  self-organization  — 
says  the  Science  of  Probabilities,  crowned  with 
the  chaplet  of  her  mathematics  and  splendid  suc- 
cesses. The  witness  says  true.  The  chances  are 
unspeakably  against  such  a  system  from  such  a 
source.  That  is,  it  is  infinitely  likely  that  the 
Law  Hypothesis  is  false.  And  this  is  the  same 
thing  as  saying  that  it  is  infinitely  likely  that  the 
alternative  Theism  is  true,  and  that  this  won- 
drous Cosmos  of  exquisite  organisms  which  so 
rejoicingly  sympathizes  with  the  idea  of  a  God 
is  the  actual  work  of  His  marvelous  hands. 

6.  If  Nature  is  self-organizing,  we  ought  to  fnd 
me7t,  or  any  other  organic  group,  confined  to  no  one 
standard  of  adult  size,  or  of  period  of  groivth,  or  of 
JcngtJi  of  life. 

The  individuals  of  each  species  should  vary 
among  themselves  almost  without  limit  in  these 
respects. 

Men  have  an  adult  stature  of  about  five  feet. 


ORG  A  NIC  L IMITS.  I  7  T 

They  reach  this  stature  in  about  twenty  years. 
They  die  in  about  seventy  years.  Other  species 
have  other  standards.  Each  has  its  own  full  size, 
its  own  rate  of  growth,  its  own  age-term.  The 
cedars  are  old  after  many  centuries,  the  mush- 
room after  a  few  hours.  The  standard  bulk  of  ele- 
phants is  so  much,  of  sheep  so  much,  of  rabbits 
so  much.  Ravens  get  their  growth  in  ten  years, 
horses  in  four,  may-flies  in  a  few  hours.  And  so 
on.  While  different  species  differ  greatly  among 
themselves  in  these  respects,  the  members  of  the 
same  species  differ  but  little.  They  follow  a  com- 
mon law  —  somewhat  elastic,  indeed,  but  still  one. 
Now,  according  to  the  Law  Hypothesis,  this 
ought  not  to  be.  Individuals  of  the  same  species 
ought  to  have  the  freedom  of  all  the  sizes,  of  all 
the  growth-periods,  of  all  the  age-terms  —  at  least 
within  such  limits  as  are  actually  found  in  Na- 
ture ;  or  rather,  within  such  limits  as  recognize  on 
the  one  hand  the  immense  divisibility  of  matter, 
and  on  the  other  hand  the  immense  abundance  of 
free  organic  material  of  all  sorts  about  us.  Why 
not  ?  Why  cannot  a  pigeon  incline  to  live  a  hun- 
dred years  as  well  as  a  raven  or  a  turtle  ?  What 
hinders  a  pilot-fish  from  being  constructed  on  the 
scale  of  the  whale  ?     What  earthly  reason  can  be 


172  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

given  why  such  atoms  as  make  up  human  bodies 
could  not  as  well  have  natures  tending  to  one  bulk 
as  to  another?  Who  can  tell  why  fifty-foot  men 
or  five-inch  men  are  not  every  way  as  credible,  in 
a  purely  natural  system,  as  men  of  five  feet  ? 
Who  would  try  to  tell  why  such  a  system  should 
incline  to  a  man  who  is  full  grown  at  twenty  years, 
and  old  at  threescore  and  ten,  rather  than  to  one 
who  is  full  grown  at  four,  and  old  at  sixteen  ?  I 
think  no  one  who  has  ever  seen  a  balance  hesi- 
tating at  equilibrium.  It  is  plain  as  noon  —  plain 
as  the  noon  of  Geometry  —  that  a  very  great  range 
of  sizes,  and  growth-periods,  and  life-terms  is 
equally  open  throughout  to  a  self-organizing  hu- 
man body  :  that  they  all  are  equally  possible  and 
easy  to  it ;  all  as  easy  to  conceive  of,  as  self-con- 
sistent, and  as  consistent  with  the  nature  of  a 
scheme  of  blind  eternal  atoms.  And  this,  in  what- 
ever way  Nature  may  be  supposed  to  organize 
men  —  whether  by  immediate  generation,  or  by 
first  generating  an  organic  germ  and  then  develop- 
ing it  through  countless  ages  and  grades  into  the 
best  Caucasian.  Evidently,  nothing  depends  on 
the  mode.  If  an  adult  eye  can  be  developed  in  all 
sizes,  from  that  of  a  monad  to  the  Grecian  shield 
of  a  deinothere,  so  may  an  adult  man. 


ORGANIC  LIMITS.  173 

So,  a  priori,  it  is  an  even  chance  what  sort  of  an 
organism  we  get  as  to  the  three  particulars  men- 
tioned. In  advance  of  a  given  organization,  it  is  a 
pure  toss-up  what  it  will  be  —  whether  mountain 
or  mote,  whether  momentary  or  millennial  —  as 
pure  a  toss-up  as  when  a  penny  leaps  upward  from 
a  wanton  hand.  Who  knows  what  face  will  fall  up- 
permost ?  But  this  all  know,  that  in  a  million  of 
such  random  casts,  one  face  will  appear  about  as 
many  times  as  the  other.  And  so  we  may  know 
that,  in  case  of  millions  of  even-chanced  human 
bodies,  one  stature,  one  age-term,  one  growth- 
period  will  not  appear  more  than  another.  So  of 
any  other  species  of  natural  organisms  that  has  a 
great  many  individuals. 

What  a  world  it  would  be !  All  around  us,  as 
well  as  in  the  strata,  the  fables  of  the  classics  and 
the  classic  fables  of  our  childhood  would  cease 
to  be  fables.  Behold  Liliputians,  fairies,  elves  ! 
Behold  Brobdignags,  Cyclops,  and  Titans  !  Lo, 
little  men,  for  a  regiment  of  whom  the  palm  of 
your  hand  would  be  ample  parade  ground  !  Lo, 
great  men,  one  of  whom  could  place  Pelion  on 
Ossa ;  or,  Atlas  like,  seem  to  bear  up  the  African 
heavens !  Not  merely  giants  and  dwarfs,  not 
merelv  Anakim  and  Tom  Thumbs,  but  veritable 


174  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

monsters  as  large  as  the  Genii  of  the  Arabian 
Nights  on  the  one  hand  ;  and,  on  the  other,  merest 
specks  of  humanity  as  small  as  those  organic 
points  which  one  has  to  put  into  the  focus  of  a 
powerful  magnifier  in  order  to  see  !  Men  who  can 
look  down  on  the  tallest  Sequoia  Gigantea  of  Cali- 
fornia ;  and,  among  them,  men  who  can  look  up  at 
the  shortest  blade  of  grass  that  ever  rose  on  Arc- 
tic plain  !  Men  who,  like  a  fungus,  have  ripened  to 
full  stature  in  a  night ;  and,  among  them,  men  who, 
like  some  British  oaks,  have  been  growing  ever 
since  their  fathers  came  over  with  the  Conqueror, 
or  at  least  ever  since  the  famous  three  brothers 
landed  in  this  country  !  People  of  three  centuries 
as  well  preserved  as  the  Seven  Sleepers  of  Ephe- 
sus  ;  Methuselahs  as  fresh  as  yesterday  ;  Wander- 
ing Jews  still  as  strong  to  journey  as  they  were  in 
the  days  of  the  Cross  ;  and  yet,  among  them,  pa- 
triarchs bearded  like  pards  and  covered  with  ven- 
erable snows,  though  they  have  not  yet  kept  their 
first  birthday  !  Nay,  men  who,  like  the  yew  of 
Hedsor  and  the  cypress  of  Chapultepec  and  the 
Baobab  of  Africa,  still  stand  firmly  under  the 
weight  of  their  three  thousand  and  five  thousand 
years ;  and  yet,  among  them,  men  who,  like  some 
insects,  are  borne  quite  from  birth  to  old  age  by 
the  short  flight  of  a  summers  morning ! 


ORGANIC  LIMITS.  175 

So  of  other  things.  Expect  next  summer  mos- 
quitoes as  large  as  eagles,  and  fleas  as  large  as  ele- 
phants. Count  on  seeing  in  the  garden  something 
like  Jack's  famous  bean  stalk  ;  or  in  the  poultry 
yards  eggs  that  tell  of  Sindbad  the  sailor.  Wonder 
not  at  finding  the  morning-glories  durable  as  those 
century-glories,  the  oaks  ;  and  your  corn  as  tall  as 
the  majestic  palms  of  Palmyra.  In  short,  the  even 
handed  lottery  has  been  sowing  in  the  skies,  the 
fields,  and  the  seas. 

Such  is  the  Nature  we  ought  to  see,  in  case  we 
are  dealing  with  nothing  but  Nature.  Millions  to 
one  we  should  see  it  —  protests  the  Theory  of 
Probabilities.  It  protests  by  its  unimpeachable 
standing  as  a  science,  and  by  all  its  triumphantly 
successful  applications  to  affairs  as  well  as  to  sci- 
ence, that  it  is  just  as  incredible  that  we  should  not 
find  a  single  instance  in  which  a  species  through- 
out has  the  range  of  all  the  standards  in  these  three 
respects  —  and  where  is  there  such  an  instance  — 
as  it  is  that  in  innumerable  random  casts  of  a  die 
it  will  always  fall  on  the  same  side.  That  is  to  say 
it  is  infinitely  incredible.  Hence  it  is  infinitely 
improbable  that  the  Law  Hypothesis  is  true  ;  and 
that  anything  short  of  God  selected  and  firmly 
maintains  for  each  organic  species  those  remark- 


176  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

able  standards  to  which  we  have  seen  each  indi- 
vidual is  full  surely,  though  somewhat  elastically, 
held.  Such  a  disposing  of  the  lot  when  cast  into 
the  lap  must  have  been  from  the  Lord.  He  it 
was,  who,  probabilities  beyond  measure,  deter- 
mined for  each  group  the  times  before  appointed  ; 
set  to  each  the  bounds  which  it  cannot  pass  ;  said 
to  each  —  whether  tiny  moss  or  mighty  conifer, 
whether  momentary  mote  or  enduring  man  —  in 
regard  to  size  and  growth  and  life,  "  Thus  far  shalt 
thou  come  and  no  farther." 

7.  If  Nature  is  self -organizing,  we  ought  to 
find  710  one  plan  of  structure  —  indeed,  no  few 
plans,  but  an  indefinite  number  of  them. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  all  natural  organisms  have 
the  property  we  call  life,  and  sustain  themselves 
and  grow  by  appropriating  matter  from  without 
by  means  of  certain  organs.  This  means  one 
common  plan  of  structure  for  all.  Such  a  plan, 
the  Law  Scheme,  when  consulted  by  the  Science 
of  Probabilities,  strongly  objects  to.  For,  there 
are  other  plans  of  structure  which  are  just  as 
possible  and  easy  to  the  world  of  fact  as  is  this 
one  which  involves  life  and  growth.  Witness  the 
many  sorts  of  machines  which  man  makes  !  Wit- 
ness the  vastly  larger  variety  which  he  can  and 


FEW   TYPES.  177 

will  make  in  course  of  the  coming  centuries ! 
These  neither  live  nor  grow,  and  are  none  the 
less  organisms  for  that.  Hence,  in  the  immense 
field  of  natural  organizations,  it  is  infinitely  un- 
likely that  they  would  all  be  of  this  one  living  and 
self-enlarging  pattern.  Multitudes  of  them  ought 
to  be  of  the  nature  of  watches,  pin-machines, 
cotton-gins,  steam-engines.  Where  are  they  ? 
Who  sees  a  saw-mill,  or  anything  like  it,  in  pro- 
cess of  being  formed  without  hands  ?  When 
have  any  such  things  as  spinning-jennies  all 
ready  to  hum,  and  ships  all  ready  to  sail  —  or 
even  the  beginnings  of  them  —  managed  to  ap- 
pear without  the  toilsome  contrivance  and  labor 
of  intelligent-  workmen  ?  Who  finds  such  things 
as  even  the  simplest  tools  of  the  farmer,  the  car- 
penter, the  shoemaker,  raining  from  the  air  ;  or 
compounding  in  the  seas,  and  the  sod,  and  the 
smoke  ;  or  slowly  developed  along  the  ages  ?  The 
man  who  should  wait  for  the  supply  of  his  tool- 
chest  till  Nature,  of  its  own  accord,  came  to  his 
aid  would,  I  ween,  wait  long  enough.  Whatever 
else  it  may  be,  full  surely  the  Nature  we  wot  of 
is  no  spontaneous  Trip-Hammer  for  the  manu- 
facture of  anything  like  those  lifeless  and  un- 
growing  tools,  machines,  and  engines  with  which 


178  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

human  ingenuity  has  made  and  armed  our  civili- 
zation. 

The  one  general  plan  of  structure  in  Nature  is 
found  divided  into  four  sub-plans,  called  the  Ra- 
diate, Mollusk,  Articulate,  and  Vertebrate.  Why 
four?  Are  there  no  more  plans  conceivable  and 
possible  for  living  and  growing  beings  ?  So  far 
from  it,  we  can  conceive  of  an  indefinite  number 
of  them  just  as  realizable  in  their  nature.  Wit- 
ness, again,  the  countless  sorts  of  human  inven- 
tions not  belonging  to  either  of  the  four  natural 
classes ;  though  they  are  as  easily  conceived  of 
as  having  vitality  and  growth  as  are  woody  fibre 
and  the  bones  of  animals.  Should  living  wheels, 
velocipedes,  chariots  roll  along  our  streets  ;  should 
living  hoes,  plows,  reapers  toil  in  our  fields ; 
should  living  chairs,  tables,  pianos  rap  and  leap 
and  sing  in  our  houses,  as  we  are  told  they  some- 
times do  for  the  Spiritualist  —  why,  for  the  life  of 
him,  no  one  could  give  a  reason  why  such  things 
are  not  fully  as  much  in  harmony  with  that  notion 
of  Nature  that  belongs  to  the  Law  Hypothesis  as 
are  any  animals  that  we  see.  When  one  reads 
in  the  Hebrew  prophet  of  those  wheels  full  of 
eyes  in  which  was  the  spirit  of  the  living  creature, 
and  which  came  and  went  like  a  flash  of  lightning 


FEW  TYPES.  179 

—  while  he  recognizes  the  novelty  of  the  concep- 
tion, he  does  not  recognize  it  as  being  a  concep- 
tion of  the  impossible.  Just  as  possible  to  the 
world  of  fact  as  is  a  man  !  Consequently,  in  a 
prodigious  throng  of  living  and  growing  construc- 
tions, it  is  infinitely  unlikely  that  they  should  all 
turn  out  to  be  of  only  four  patterns  —  as  incred- 
ible as  it  would  be  that  a  castaway  penny  should 
fall  on  the  same  face  only  four  times  in  a  million 
of  throws. 

Again,  each  of  these  four  sub-plans  is  found 
divided  into  %.few  others.  For  example,  the  ver- 
tebrate plan  appears  under  the  forms  of  fishes, 
reptiles,  birds,  and  mammals.  These  forms  are 
only  four  out  of  indefinite  millions  equally  possi- 
ble and  credible.  You  might  sit  down  and  with 
wanton  pencil  prolifically  design,  for  a  lifetime, 
vertebrates  which  would  be  neither  fishes  nor 
reptiles  nor  birds  nor  mammals,  and  yet  be  fully 
as  fair  candidates  as  they  for  a  place  in  a  merely 
natural  scheme  of  a  living  and  growing  world. 
Why  not  romance  at  Natural  History  as  easily 
and  plausibly  and  plentifully  as  at  any  other  sort 
of  History  ? 

Further,  each  of  the  four  vertebrate  plans  is 
found  divided  into  a  feiv  others.      For  example, 


ISO  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

the  reptile  plan  appears  under  the  forms  of  tur- 
tles, lizards,  and  serpents.  Are  these  three  the 
only  conceivable  reptilian  forms  ?  Say  three 
billions  rather — just  as  possible  and  credible, 
for  aught  one  can  see,  as  the  forms  that  actually 
exist  —  say  as  many  as  would  affright  us  were 
all  the  uncouth  monsters  ever  stealthily  drawn  by 
the  unfledged  and  lunatic  pencils  of  children, 
small  or  great,  on  slate  and  fly-leaf  and  desk  and 
disfigured  wall,  to  suddenly  step  forth  into  life, 
cold-blooded,  oviparous,  and  scaly. 

And  so  on  —  down  as  far  as  naturalists  have  dis- 
tinguished and  classified  structural  differences. 
It  is  a  long  succession  of  independent  selec- 
tions. And  then  this  selection  rapidly  spreads 
out  like  an  open  fan  as  we  go  downward,  until, 
at  last,  it  covers  the  whole  earth  with  some  hun- 
dreds of  thousands  of  collateral  selections  for  as 
many  different  collateral  species.  Under  each 
group  are  preserved,  at  most,  only  a  few  types 
of  structure,  out  of  indefinite  multitudes  equally 
credible  in  a  scheme  of  mere  Nature.  Almost 
all  the  sands  on  the  sea-shore  fall  through  the 
coarse  web  of  the  tempestuous  sieve  :  it  is  only 
here  and  there  a  grain  of  special  largeness  that 
remains    on    the    reluctant    wires.      Now    this    is 


FEW   TYPES.  l8l 

altogether  contrary  to  the  Doctrine  of  Chances. 
In  case  of  toss-ups  almost  without  number,  it  is 
incredible  that  the  penny  should  always  come 
down  on  the  same  face,  save  in  four  instances, 
more  or  less.  Perfectly  incredible,  I  say :  as  in- 
deed is  the  idea  that  Nature  has  only  one  plan  of 
spontaneous  generation  (if  any),  namely,  that  of 
rude  and  microscopic  germs  in  one  or  four,  or  at 
most  but  few,  types  ;  only  one  plan  of  growth  for 
the  individual,  namely,  that  by  self  action  for  a 
certain  small  proportion  of  its  whole  life  ;  only 
three  modes  of  animal  reproduction,  namely,  the 
oviparous,  the  viviparous,  and  the  polypal  ;  in 
short,  only  one  or  a  few  plans  of  almost  anything, 
from  the  one  law  of  gravity,  downward  or  upward. 
And  you  observe  that,  altogether,  what  we  have 
is  an  incredibility  of  an  incredibility  to  the  «th 
power.  The  question  is  on  the  joint  occurrence 
of  many  independent  selections,  each  of  which  is 
supremely  incredible  by  itself.  The  problem  is 
one  in  geometrical  progression.  What  think  you 
of  a  differential  of  the  millionth  order  ?  It  is  the 
wonderful  denominator  of  such  a  fraction  as  this 
which  scientifically  expresses  the  unlikelihood  — 
why  not  say  impossibility  —  of  the  joint  occur- 
rence  of  this  long  Chinese  alphabet  and  gamut 


1 82  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

of  incredible  things.  So  says  the  Calculus  of 
Probabilities.  See  the  huge  way  in  which  this 
Science,  with  all  its  well-earned  laurels  and  stars 
and  crosses  of  the  Legion  of  Honor,  pronounces 
against  the  Law  Hypothesis  and  for  the  Theistic  ! 
Beyond  measure  and  beyond  measure  —  says  this 
solid  witness  —  it  is  sure  that  there  is  a  Person 
who  carried  through  into  the  objective  this  long 
quadrant  of  selections.  No  lottery,  though  bear- 
ing the  grand  name  of  Law,  would  have  done  it. 
We  must  look  toward  a  still  grander  name  —  one 
that  dazzles  as  we  look.  With  bated  breath,  call 
it  God.  He  it  was  who  chose  here  one,  there 
four,  yonder  two,  and  almost  everywhere  a  few, 
plans  of  structure  and  process  out  of  thronging 
multitudes  that  might  as  easily  have  been  taken  ; 
and  then  swept  the  mighty  remainder  into  the 
limbo  of  rejected  ideas  where  the  curious  and 
leisurely  may  still  find  them.  It  is  thus  we  have 
that  unity  of  Nature  in  which  philosophy  rejoices, 
and  in  which  religion  sees  mirrored  the  august 
face  of  One  Eternal  Creator. 

8.  If  Nature  is  self -organizing,  the  folloiviiig 
things  should  be  true  of  Mind.  It  should  be  with- 
out freedom,  without  moral  character,  without  just 
accountability ,  without  power  of  being  influenced  by 


SPIRITUAL   PROPERTIES.  1 83 

perceived  motives,  without  immortality  or  even  a 
future  beyond  this  world,  without  limitation  of  de- 
gree, and  without  limitation  of  the  higher  degrees 
to  men  or  even  to  organic  forms. 

The  Law  Hypothesis  proposes  to  account  for 
all  natural  things,  including  mental  phenomena, 
by  means  of  the  admitted  inherent  properties  and 
laws  of  matter.  It  supposes  that  Mind  is  solely 
the  result  of  the  coming  together  in  certain  ways 
of  certain  blind  material  atoms.  Of  course  it 
.  must  be  as  inflexible  and  necessary,  in  its  mode 
of  action,  as  the  matter  from  which  it  solely  springs 
is  shown  to  be  by  the  whole  tenor  of  our  expe- 
rience and  of  physical  science.  The  child  must 
be  like  the  parent.  The  stream  must  be  like  the 
fountain,  however  long  and  tortuous  the  flow.  We 
must  think  and  will  and  feel  by  fate.  There  can 
be  no  more  freedom  in  the  workings  of  our  minds 
than  there  is  in  gravity  or  chemical  actions.  This 
is  admitted,  and  even  claimed,  by  most  friends  of 
the  Law  Hypothesis.  We  are  mere  organized 
stones  —  say,  if  you  prefer,  organized  heat  or  light 
or  electricity. 

Of  course,  such  things  as  virtue  and  vice,  and 
just  responsibility  for  anything  they  are  or  do,  are 
impossible  to  men.     No  one  has  been  justly  pun- 


184  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

ished  or  blamed  since  the  world  began.  —  Of  course, 
also,  men  cannot  be  influenced  by  perceived  mo- 
tives of  any  degree.     Our  views,  choices,  feelings, 
voluntary  conduct,  can  only  be  modified  by  modi- 
fying the  physical  causes  on  which  only  they  de- 
pend,  namely,  the    unperceiving   atoms,    or   that 
unperceiving    arrangement   of  the    atoms    which 
incubates  them  into  intelligence.     All  arguments 
and  eloquence,  all  examples  and  appeals  to  reason 
or  conscience  or  interest,  all  the  boundless  talk- 
ings  of  men  with  their  fellows  to  get  them  to  do 
or  not  do  certain  things,  amount  to  nothing.    They 
are  altogether   nugatory  and   absurd.      The  only 
way  to  alter  the  opinions,  purposes,  and  feelings 
of  men  is  to  alter  the  number  or  the  arrangement 
of  the  particles  on  which  such  things  solely  de- 
pend.    While   the    cause    remains  the  same,  the 
effect  must  not  be  expected  to  vary.  —  Of  course, 
further,  the  human  mind  is    not   immortal.     We 
are  brothers  to  the  brutes.     Come  on,  all  ye  apes 
and  toads  and  worms,  sure  we  are  brothers  —  or, 
if  not  brothers,  parents  and  children  !     The  death 
that   completely  dissolves  all   the  structures  and 
compounds  of  our  bodies  must  carry  extinction  to 
all  our  souls.     We  not  only  have  no  forever,  but 
we  have  no  future.     We  are  only  a  better  sort  of 


SPIRITUAL   PROPERTIES.  1 85 

cattle.  All  these  inferences  from  the  Law  Scheme 
are  of  the  million-to-one  class. 

But  there  is  still  another  closely  related  infer- 
ence which  appeals  formally  to  the  Theory  of 
Probabilities.  If  the  Law  Scheme  is  sound  we 
ought  to  find  neither  men  nor  any  other  class  of 
beings  confined  to  any  one  standard  of  intelli- 
gence:  but  while  men  should  show  far  higher 
specimens  of  mind  than  they  do  now,  such  high 
specimens  should  be  quite  as  frequent  among  the 
other  animals,  and  even  among  plants  and  lifeless 
things,  as  among  men. 

Do  mental  faculties  come  of  a  certain  combi- 
nation of  certain  blind  atoms  ?  Then,  of  course, 
these  atoms  on  whose  special  properties  and  laws 
our  minds  ultimately  depend,  are,  in  the  nature  of 
things,  just  as  open  to  one  measure  of  these  special 
properties  and  laws  as  to  another.  Why  not  ? 
What  is  there  in  the  nature  of  things  requiring 
these  elements  to  look  toward  the  average  human 
mind  rather  than  toward  that  of  a  Newton  or  of 
a  thousand-fold  Newton  ?  Why  cannot  they  as 
well,  from  all  eternity,  beckon  and  bow  in  the  di- 
rection of  a  Plato  as  of  an  ordinary  mind,  of  a  Ju- 
piter as  of  a  Plato,  of  God  as  of  a  Jupiter  —  why 
not  propose  to  themselves  One  who  can  flood  all 


1 86  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

space  with  sovereign  knowledge  and  power  as  they 
themselves  are  already  flooding  it  with  their  sover- 
eign gravitation  ?  I  know  of  no  man  who  is  phi- 
losopher enough  to  tell  why.  But  I  know  many 
men  who  are  philosophers  enough  to  see  why  they 
cannot  tell.  No  reason  can  be  given  because  none 
exists.  Nor  does  any  reason  exist  why  such 
atoms,  of  whatever  grade,  together  with  such  com- 
binations as  would  make  the  most  of  them,  could 
not  just  as  well  be  connected  with  one  organiza- 
tion as  with  another,  with  inorganic  things  as  with 
organic.  For  it  is  not  the  general  animal  body 
that  thinks  and  feels  and  chooses  ;  this  is  struct- 
urally perfect  even  after  it  is  quite  dead.  If  the 
thinking  power  depends  on  a  certain  system  of 
deftly  arranged  atoms,  it  must  be  a  subtle  interior 
system  that  eludes  our  nicest  observation.  And 
I  say,  there  is  no  assignable  reason  why  this  oc- 
cult system  could  not  just  as  well  be  connected 
with  one  thing  as  with  another,  with  inorganic 
things  as  with  organic.  Evidently  not  —  as  evi- 
dentlv  as  that  there  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  a 
ship  why  it  should  move  toward  one  point  of  the 
compass  rather  than  toward  another.  The  sys- 
tem of  atoms,  freighted  with  seeds  and  types  and 
prophecies  of  the  Academy  or  of  Olympus,  could 


SPIRITUAL  PROPERTIES.  1 87 

sail  away  as  easily  and  prosperously  toward,  and 
anchor  as  firmly  by,  a  mollusk  or  a  mountain  as  a 
man.  All  grades  of  these  soul-germs,  all  conceiv- 
able combinations  of  them,  all  allocations  of  such 
combinations,  are  equally  possible  and  easy  to  the 
thought  —  equally  possible  and  easy  to  such  a 
scheme  of  Nature  as  the  Law  Hypothesis  sup- 
poses. As  candidates  for  the  world  of  self-con- 
sistent and  scientific  ideas,  as  candidates  for  the 
world  of  outward  realities,  there  is  nothing  to 
choose  between  them.  One  would  leap  into  Fact 
just  as  readily  as  the  other  at  the  bidding  of  a 
Creator.  It  is  a  case  of  unmitigated  lottery.  In 
advance  of  a  given  mind,  it  is  a  pure  toss-up  what 
measure  of  endowments  it  will  have,  and  with  what 
natural  objects  it  will  stand  connected  —  whether 
it  will  have  the  twilight  intelligence  of  the  hum- 
blest brute,  or  the  midday  intelligence  of  the  loftiest 
Christian  archangel  ;  whether  it  will  be  linked  to 
a  human  body,  or  to  the  body  of  a  tree  or  a  body 
of  water  —  as  pure  a  toss-up  as  when  a  penny  is 
shot  aloft  with  the  abandon  of  a  Bacchus.  Hence, 
in  the  case  of  a  vast  number  of  minds,  we  ought 
to  find  as  many  examples  of  one  grade  as  of  an- 
other ;  and  we  ought  to  find  all  the  grades  sown 
with  impartial  broadcast  among  all  sorts  of  things 


1 88  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

Instead  of  each  sort  of  animals  having  its  own 
standard  of  intelligence,  each  should  have  the 
sweep  of  all  the  standards  —  instead  of  plants  and 
inorganic  things  being  totally  without  mind,  they 
should  be  as  liberally  supplied  with  all  its  grades 
as  are  the  animal  tribes.  Millions  to  one  it  would 
be  so. 

Now  see  the  actual  world.  Is  not  every  man 
conscious  that  he  is  a  free,  moral,  and  justly  re- 
'  sponsible  being  :  and  have  not  all  mankind,  with- 
out exception  and  from  time  immemorial,  treated 
each  other  accordingly  —  praising,  blaming,  and 
punishing  to  any  extent  ?  —  Are  we  prepared,  de- 
spite the  almost  universal  doctrine  and  hope  of 
mankind,  to  give  up  the  idea  of  Another  Life  — 
not  merely  the  proof  of  it,  but  the  very  possibility 
of  it  —  to  give  up  all  idea  of  ever  meeting  again 
our  dissolved  fathers  and  mothers,  or  even  our 
own  dissolved  selves  (to  be  dissolved  a  few  years 
hence)?  —  Is  there  no  standard  human  mind? 
Are  men  with  the  souls  of  foxes  and  geese  and 
worms  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  the  traditionary 
angels  on  the  other,  as  common  as  men  with  such 
souls  as  yours  and  mine  ?  There  is  as  much  a 
standard  stature  for  the  minds  of  men  as  there  is 
for  their  bodies.     We  find  occasional  dwarfs,  oc- 


SPIRITUAL   PROPERTIES.  189 

casional  giants  also  ;  but  the  vast  majority  of 
minds  are  clustered  closely  about  a  certain  mean 
measure  toward  which,  it  is  plain,  they  all  gravi- 
tate, and  from  which  all  deviations  are  due  to  dis- 
turbing forces.  The  oscillations  of  the  pendulum 
recognize  a  fixed  center.  Just  as  the  needle  rec- 
ognizes the  Pole,  though  it  has  some  play  to  either 
side  of  it  ;  just  as  all  the  particles  of  a  sphere  rec- 
ognize the  common  center  of  gravity,  though  some 
succeed  in  approaching  it  more  nearly  than 
others  :  so  our  souls,  though  variant  within  cer- 
tain limits,  recognize  and  incline  to  a  certain  com- 
mon and  fixed  type  of  capacity.  Where  are  the 
human  Jupiters  ?  Where  are  genuine  Minervas, 
hiding  in  the  flesh  and  blood  of  genuine  Men- 
tors ?  The  pool,  the  pond,  the  Pacific— is  our 
human  tonnage  as  often  gauged  to  one  as  to  an- 
other ?  —  So  of  the  other  animal  tribes.  Each  has 
its  own  standard  measure  of  the  intelligent  prin- 
ciple, and  that  a  very  small  one.  Any  Houyhn- 
hnms  ever  discovered  by  errant  Gullivers  ?  Any 
sign  of  Pitts  and  Websters  among  the  oxen  ? 
Any  hint  of  Tassos  and  Dantes  among  the  fowls  ? 
Worms  and  insects  —  do  they  ever  give  token  of 
being  Napoleons  and  Massillons  ?  When  we 
speak  of  the  brute  creation,  is  it  all  an  egregious 


I90  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

misnomer ;  and,  while  the  intelligence  of  one  ani- 
mal shakes  the  wing  of  a  butterfly,  does  his  fellow 
of  the  same  species  mount  on  that  of  an  eagle, 
and  still  another  fellow  soar  with  a  wing  that  can 
shadow  a  solar  system  ?  Do  plants  and  inorganic 
things  love  and  hate  and  plan  and  choose  as  well 
as  the  best  of  us  ?  Do  Mozarts  and  Ciceros  and 
Sapphos  wave  to  the  breeze  under  the  name  of 
myrtles  and  oaks,  or  ripple  over  the  stones  under 
the  name  of  brooks  and  rivers,  or  draw  the  clouds 
and  lightnings  under  the  name  of  hills  and  moun- 
tains, or  trip  our  feet  under  the  name  of  stum- 
bling-blocks ?  Is  the  power  of  articulate  speech 
all  that  is  needed  by  the  "  things,"  to  enable  them 
to  turn  the  Fables  of  ^sop  and  Fontaine  into  his- 
tory—  so  that  the  bramble  shall  advise  the  cedar 
of  Lebanon  like  a  very  Nestor,  and  storks  and 
foxes  and  lions  reason  together  as  if  the  Seven 
Wise  Men  of  Greece  were  in  them  ?  Is  the  old 
mythology,  after  all,  nothing  but  a  sort  of  Natural 
History  ;  and  is  almost  any  grove,  or  island,  or 
stream,  or  valley,  or  hill,  possessed  by  an  Intelli- 
gence which  may  be  as  worthy  of  love  or  fear  as 
any  sylvan  deity  ever  fancied  by  the  heathen  ? 
Are  there  Nereids  for  the  seas,  Naiads  for  the 
streams,  Dryads  for  the  woods  ?  Is  there  a  Ceres 


SPIRITUAL   PROPERTIES.  19 1 

in  the  corn,  a  Pomona  in  the  apple,  a  Bacchus  in 
the  grape,  a  Vulcan  in  the  volcano,  a  Diana  in  the 
moon,  an  Apollo  in  the  sun,  and  a  Venus  in  the 
sweet  evening  star  ?  Is  everything  really  pos- 
sessed? The  metaphors  and  personifications  of 
orators  and  poets  —  are  these  merest  nineteenth 
century  prose  ?  Are  oaks  really  stubborn,  roses 
proud,  lilies  of  the  valley  humble,  vines  affection- 
ate, cypresses  melancholy  ?  Is  there  really  a  grain 
of  sense  in  the  child  getting  angry  at  and  beat- 
ing the  stone  against  which  he  has  stubbed  his 
foot  ?  Do  landscapes  really  smile,  the  clouds  get 
angry,  fires  and  waters  rage,  stones  and  stars  and 
all  between  understand  the  apostrophes  we  ad- 
dress to  them  ?  Ho,  Father  Tiber !  Ho,  Mother 
Earth  !  Ho,  crescent  Astarte  !  "  Ho,  thou  that 
rollest  above,  round  as  the  shield  of  my  fathers  — 
whence  are  thy  beams,  O  Sun,  thine  everlasting 
light ! "  And  is  there  really  nothing  to  hinder  us 
from  getting  satisfactory  answer  from  these  per- 
sonages, save  perchance  some  such  slight  difficulty 
as  that  of  their  hearing  or  talking  our  vernacular 
Latin,  or  Saxon,  or  Phenician,  or  Celtic?-  Has 
the  shadow  really  gone  back  so  far  on  the  dial  of 
old  Chronos,  and  are  we  once  more  in  the  midst 
of  the  old  heathenism.  God  forbid  —  if  there  be 
a  God  ! 


192  SIXTH  LECTURE. 

And  yet  this  is  what  we  should  find  in  case  the 
Law  Hypothesis  were  true.  Millions  to  one  we 
should  find  it  —  pronounces  the  great  Doctrine  of 
Chances.  She  pronounces  it  from  above  that  Arc 
de  Triomphe  which  our  best  nations  and  sciences 
have  united  in  raising  to  her  honor,  and  covering 
with  the  marble  pictures  of  her  achievements. 
And  yet,  so  far  from  finding  minds  of  all  orders, 
from  that  as  small  as  the  tiniest  dew-drop  to 
that  as  large  as  the  hugest  world,  scattered  at  ran- 
dom among  all  sorts  of  natural  objects  as  if  from 
the  hands  of  some  Quadrifrons  Janus,  we  find 
most  classes  of  these  objects  showing  no  minds  at 
all,  and  those  which  do  show  them  confined  each 
to  a  single  standard  capacity.  Behold  the  meas- 
ureless improbability  with  which  the  atheistic  Law 
Hypothesis  is  weighted  !  Such  a  millstone  ought 
to  drag  it  down  to  the  very  bottom  of  the  seas  — 
there  to  lie  drowned  and  buried  forever.  And 
this  is  the  same  thing  as  saying  that  it  ought  to 
raise  that  shining  alternative,  Theism,  which,  beau- 
tiful as  an  angel,  presses  foot  on  the  other  arm  of 
the  lever,  as  high  as  Heaven  —  thence  to  behold 
and  rule  all  nations.  Let  us  say,  All  hail,  loftiest 
Doctrine  !  Infinite  probabilities  with  an  infinite 
exponent  are  swelling  beneath  thy  buoyant  and 


SPIRITUAL    PROPERTIES.  1 93 

star- fanning  wings  !  How  keenly  -flash  those  stars 
under  that  mighty  pulse  !  And  then,  full  surely, 
no  such  discriminations  ever  came  out  of  a  dice 
box,  or  were  reeled  off  from  some  great  lottery 
wheel  of  blind  law.  I  am  sorry  for  you  if  you  can- 
not see  it  —  but  lo,  God  !  See  here  the  true  First 
of  Aries  !  See  here  the  true  Prime  Meridian  of 
science  !  See  here  the  true  Epoch  of  history  for 
the  whole  astronomical  heavens  !  It  was  doubt- 
less a  true  Natural  Selection  that  presided  over 
the  grades  and  distributions  of  Mind  ;  and  gave  to 
man  his  day,  to  the  worm  its  dawn,  and  to  innu- 
merable objects  most  fair  and  exquisite  in  their 
way  their  starless  night  —  a  true  Natural  Selection 
—  but  then  the  name  is  too  long  and  savors  too 
much  of  a  mere  Tiling.  Please  call  it  Gob  !  And 
God  it  is  —  personal,  eternal,  unbounded  —  though 
some  few  men  may  choose  to  hide  and  belittle  and 
suppress  Him  under  the  learned  names  of  Pan- 
genesis, Parthenogenesis,  and  Protoplasm. 


13 


VII. 

CONFLICT     WITH     SOLAR 
ASTRONOMY. 

Nam  cum  dispositi  quaesissem  fcedera  mundi, 
Praescriptosque  mari  fines,  annisque  meatus, 
Et  lucis  noctisque  vires  :  tunc  omnia  rebar 
Consilio  firmata  Dei.  —  Claudian. 


VII.    Conflict  with  Solar  Astronomy. 

i.     NEBULAR  HYPOTHESIS  197 

2.  ESTIMATED 199 

3.  CENTRAL  HEAT 203 

4.  CHEMICAL  CONSTITUTION 205 

i.     MECHANICAL   RELATIONS 209 

6.  ROTATIONS 216 

7.  REVOLUTIONS 223 

8.  WHAT  NEXT? 239 


SEVENTH    LECTURE. 


CONFLICT    WITH    SOLAR   ASTRONOMY. 

TT  is  essential  to  the  Law  Hypothesis  that  it 
-*-  account,  not  only  for  the  living  organic  bodies 
on  our  globe,  but  also  for  that  globe  itself  and  all 
those  systems  of  worlds  which  make  up  the  great 
realm  of  Astronomy.     This  it  attempts  to  do. 

Thus.  Suppose  out  in  free  space  a  great  mass 
of  glowing  vapor.  This  vapor,  under  the  influence 
of  gravity,  will  take  a  globular  figure,  as  being  the 
figure  of  equilibrium.  This  vaporous  globe,  by 
loss  of  heat  and  stress  of  gravity,  will  gradually 
contract  on  its  center.  This  inward  flow  of  mat- 
ter from  all  quarters  will  be  sure  to  be  made  un- 
equal here  and  there  by  inequalities  of  structure, 
and  so  will  cause  a  central  whirlpool.  This  cen- 
tral whirl  will  gradually  extend  itself  to  the  whole 
mass  and  become  its  rotation.  This  rotation  will 
cause  an  equatorial  protuberance.  This  protuber- 
ance will  gather  speed  as  the  mass  contracts  until, 


198  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

at  last,  the  centrifugal  force  willexceed  the  centrip- 
etal and  a  ring  be  detached  ;  and,  as  the  con- 
traction goes  on,  successive  rings  with  an  ever 
increasing  speed  of  rotation.  Each  of  these  rings 
will  have  in  it  some  nuclei  —  one  or  more  —  of 
special  condensation  and  confluence  of  currents, 
and  so  eddies  :  and  these  nuclei  will  finally  draw 
the  whole  material  of  the  ring  about  themselves 
and  become  so  many  rotating  planets  ;  each  of 
which  in  its  turn  may  throw  off  from  its  equator 
successive  rings  to  become  satellites.  So,  at  last, 
a  solar  system  may  be  born  out  of  mere  vapor  by 
the  sole  means  of  well-known  natural  forces  and 
laws. 

This  is  the  noted  Nebular  Hypothesis.  Its 
more  advanced  friends  add  that  the  system  thus 
naturally  constructed  must  at  last  be  ruined  in  a 
natural  way,  if  not  by  the  gradual  decay  of  the 
solar  heat,  by  the  resistance  of  the  ether  which  is 
found  occupying  the  planetary  spaces.  This  will 
retard  the  planets  and  satellites  in  their  revolu- 
tions and  at  last  cause  them  all  to  fall  into  the 
sun,  there  to  be  vaporized  and  expanded  again  into 
the  original  fire  mist.  Then,  in  the  same  way  as 
before,  the  system  will  be  built  up  anew.  And  so 
on  eternally.     And  so  backward  eternally. 


NEBULAR  HYPOTHESIS.  199 

See  a  specimen  of  the  history  of  every  celestial 
system  !  The  nebulous  tree  slowly  ripens  its  fruit 
through  the  ages  until  comes  the  cosmical  autumn. 
Then  Law  lifts  its  great  hand  and  shakes  the 
loaded  boughs  till  they  have  cast  all  their  mellow 
and  yellow  globes  —  as  it  is  written,  The  stars 
shall  fall  from  heaven  and  the  powers  of  heaven 
shall  be  shaken.  But  at  length  comes  the  cos- 
mical spring  again ;  and  new  world-buds,  blos- 
soms, fruits  take  the  place  of  the  old  and  exactly 
repeat  their  history.  And  so  on,  in  endless  rep- 
etition, upon  the  same  huge  immortal  tree. 

In  support  of  these  views  it  is  claimed  that  fire 
mists  are  actually  found  in  space  —  that  they  are 
found,  apparently,  in  various  stages  of  such  a 
world-forming  process  as  has  just  been  described  ; 
condensing  at  the  center,  parting  into  nuclei,  ac- 
quiring rings  —  and  that,  on  the  supposition  that 
the  solar  and  stellar  systems  were  once  fire  mists 
and  formed  according  to  the  Nebular  Hypothesis, 
their  leading  facts  are  well  accounted  for. 

Before  considering  how  far  the  hypothesis  and 
its  alleged  proofs  agree  with  facts,  it  is  worth 
while  to  notice  that  the  agreement  might  be  per- 
fect, and  yet  amount  to  very  little  as  support  to  a 
scheme  of  mere  naturalism.    Most  theists  are  free 


200  *  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

to  admit  that  there  are  such  things  as  natural 
causes.  They  are  also  free  to  admit  that  such 
causes  are  able  to  do  not  a  few  interesting  and 
striking  things.  If  any  one  can  show  that  among 
these  interesting  and  striking  things  is  the  com- 
pacting and  arranging  of  those  huge  masses  which 
we  call  planets,  suns,  stars  —  what  follows  ?  That 
mere  Nature  can  do  everything  ?  By  no  means. 
That  mere  Nature  can  people  these  worlds  which 
it  has  made  with  the  higher  wonders  of  vegetable 
and  animal  and  spiritual  life  ?  By  no  means.  All 
that  follows  is  that  I  must  enlarge  somewhat  the 
field  of  possible  natural  causation,  as  it  lay  in  my 
mind.  I  have  been  inclined,  say,  to  regard  that 
field  as  bounded  by  terrestrial  crystals  ;  now  I 
must  regard  it  as  including  those  huger  crystals 
in  space  which  we  call  worlds.  That  is  all.  I 
have  merely  shifted  boundaries  a  little  —  I  have 
not  abolished  them.  I  have  advanced  the  walls 
somewhat,  but  I  have  not  advanced  them  beyond 
the  entire  universe  of  matter  and  mind.  A  great 
domain  is  still  left  for  the  supernatural.  Still  may 
it  be  true  that  this  domain  includes  all  that  living 
world  of  organic  and  spiritual  being  whose  intri- 
cate and  exquisite  adjustments  and  powers,  even 
in  their  lowest  forms,  baffle  our  understandings  as 
no  astronomic  systems  have  ever  done. 


ESTIMATED.  201 

Proving  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  would  amount 
to  very  little.  But  disproving  it  would  amount  to 
a  great  deal.  It  would  break  down  the  whole 
Law  Scheme,  break  it  down  with  a  feather,  break 
it  down  at  a  point  where  it  really  is  strongest. 
Nowhere  does  that  scheme  have  so  specious  a 
look',  nowhere  does  it  really  come  so  near  to  ade- 
quacy, as  where  it  attempts  to  account  for  the 
origin  of  worlds.  And  worlds  of  some  sort  are  by 
far  the  easiest  part  of  Nature  to  account  for  on 
natural  principles.  No  one  ever  yet  had  a 
glimpse,  or  pretended  to  have,  of  the  way  in 
which  atoms  could  naturally  come  together  so  as 
to  make  a  Newton,  or  even  a  daisy  ;  but  almost 
any  one  can  see  how  atoms  might  come  together, 
through  gravity  and  loss  of  heat,  into  a  great 
round  body  of  rude  matter  for  a  daisy  and  New- 
ton to  live  on.  It  can  be  made  clear  to  a  little 
child.  Still  it  is  a  question  whether  the  actual 
worlds  (which  are  something  more  than  great 
heaps,  or  even  happy  compilations,  of  moving 
matter)  were  actually  made  in  this  way.  If  it  can 
be  shown  that  they  were  not,  then  the  Law 
Scheme  is  shown  unequal  to  the  easiest  of  all  the 
work  it  has  to  do. 

Can  it  be  shown  —  shown  that  such  an  origin 


202  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

of  the  worlds  as  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  supposes 
is  in  direct  conflict  with  astronomical  facts  ? 

That  it  does  not  conflict  with  some  of  these 
facts  is  a  plain  matter.  No  doubt  there  are  many 
bodies  in  space  more  or  less  aeriform  ;  that  many 
of  these  bodies  are  incandescent ;  that  some  of 
them  have  shapes  and  aspects  such  as  they  would 
have  if  ripened  from  a  vague  fire  mist  after  the 
manner  supposed ;  that  aeriform  incandescent 
bodies  of  a  certain  sort  would,  in  virtue  of  well- 
known  laws  of  heat  and  gravity,  gradually  con- 
dense into  solid  spheres  having  revolutions  and 
rotations  somewhat  like  those  of  our  own  system  ; 
and  that,  at  last,  such  a  system  might  come  to  a 
fiery  end  in  which  "  the  heavens  dissolve  and  the 
elements  melt  with  fervent  heat."  All  these,  and 
some  lesser  facts  to  the  same  effect  —  such  as  the 
agreements  of  the  Nebular  Scheme  with  the  par- 
ticular shape  of  our  earth  ;  with  the  gradual  in- 
crease of  heat  toward  its  center  ;  with  the  traces  of 
a  far  higher  ancient  temperature  at  the  surface 
than  now  exists,  and  even  of  a  general  igneous 
fusion  —  are  freely  granted.  There  is,  beyond  a 
doubt,  a  large  and  interesting  agreement  between 
the  heavens  as  they  are  and  the  heavens  as  they 
would  be  if  built  according  to  the  Nebular  Hy- 
pothesis. 


CENTRAL   HEAT.  203 

But,  then,  this  is  only  one  side  of  the  subject. 
There  is  also  another  large  side  —  a  side  of  dis- 
agreement and  insufficiency.  Not  only  does  the 
hypothesis  fail  to  account  for  many  astronomical 
facts  ;  but  it  is  in  direct  conflict  with  many  other 
astronomical  facts  of  the  surest  and  weightiest 
character.  I  will  give  some  examples.  And  they 
will  be,  on  the  present  occasion,  exclusively  from 
the  Solar  System. 

I  begin  at  the  center  of  the  System  ;  and  call 
your  attention  to  the  immense  heat  and  bright- 
ness of  the  Sun. 

If  the  Sun  is  the  residuum  of  a  fire  mist  which 
has  been  cooling  for  an  immense  period,  its  origi- 
nal heat  and  brightness  must  have  been  almost  in- 
finitely greater  than  they  are  now.  But  what  is  a 
brightness  almost  infinitely  greater  than  now  be- 
longs to  the  Sun  —  on  the  face  of  which  the  Vol- 
taic arch,  whose  as  yet  unmeasured  heat  vaporizes 
the  most  refractory  substances,  turns  to  a  shadow  ? 
Something  inconceivable.  Something  wonderfully 
beyond  example  —  unless  the  nebulae  give  exam- 
ples. But  they  do  not.  The  latest  advices  from 
the  spectroscope  —  as  I  shall  have  occasion  to  no- 
tice more  fully  hereafter  —  are  to  the  effect  that 
the  gaseous  nebulae,  so  called,  are  not  particularly 


204  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

heated.  Besides,  if  they  were,  they  would,  as 
a  rule,  outshine  those  nebulae  pronounced  solid 
by  their  spectra ;  as-  they  do  not.  Moreover, 
their  central  part  would  outshine  the  stars  them- 
selves ;  on  account;  both  of  its  greater  size  and  of 
its  greater  intrinsic  brightness.  We  ought  to  see 
at  the  heart  of  every  large  gaseous  nebula  a  region 
of  visible  diameter  so  effulgent  as  to  put  to  shame 
most  easily  the  glory  of  Sirius  himself.  It  should 
be  so  —  unless  the  nebulae  are  in  general  much 
further  from  us  than  are  the  stars.  But  this  would 
not  consist  with  the  view  that  the  stars  are  all 
made  from  fire  mists,  and  are  destined  in  due 
course  of  Nature  to  turn  to  fire  mists  again. 
This  view  requires  that  the  gaseous  nebulae,  on 
the  average,  be  at  the  same  distance  from  us  as 
the  stars  which  stand  for  their  completed  state. 

Thus  the  Solar  System,  at  its  fervid  center, 
begins  to  object  to  that  hypothesis  which,  what- 
ever may  be  thought  of  its  real  significance,  is 
the  sole  dependence  in  these  days  of  all  who  try 
to  explain  the  natural  without  help  of  the  super- 
natural. Instead  of  falling  down  before  an  atom 
(say  several  atoms,  if  you  please)  and  saying, 
Thou  art  my  Maker,  the  Sun  prefers  to  go  further 
for  its   worship  and   fare  better ;    and  sends   far 


CHEMICAL    CONSTITUTION.  205 

down  the  abysses  its  flaming  glances  asking, 
Where  is  He  f 

I  next  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  our 
Solar  System  has  not  the  same  chemical  consti- 
tution throughout  —  as  it  would  have  if  all  its 
members  came  from  the  same  fire  mist. 

By  the  laws  of  gravity  the  materials  of  the  mist 
would  tend  to  arrange  themselves  in  the  nebulous 
sphere  in  successive  layers,  according  to  density, 
the  densest  at  the  center  ;  but,  by  the  laws  of 
heat,  the  heat  in  such  a  sphere  would  become 
supreme  at  the  center  where  its  loss  is  least,  and 
so  start  thence  to  the  outside  currents  that,  com- 
ing and  going  everywhere  —  like  the  streams  of 
pilgrimage  at  Mecca,  center  of  faith  ;  or  like  the 
streams  of  trade  at  Palmyra,  center  of  gain,  in 
her  days  of  palm  —  would  carry  everywhere  on 
their  incessant  caravans  all  the  elements  of  the 
nebula  and  intimately  mix  its  constituent  mate- 
rials. Of  course,  other  heat-centers  would  still 
further  promote  the  mixing.  It  would  be  un- 
bounded free  trade.  Every  place  would  get 
everything.  It  would  be  a  case  of  extreme  boil- 
ing—  of  the  most  thorough,  most  terrible,  and 
most  merciless  sort.  As  every  housekeeper 
knows,  the  mighty  caldron   could  not  fail   to  get 


206  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

its  various  contents  well  distributed.  In  no  other 
way  can  such  chemical  unions  as  we  find  through- 
out the  Earth,  between  the  lightest  and  the  dens- 
est substances,  be  accounted  for  by  the  hypoth- 
esis. In  no  other  way  can  it  account  for  the 
present  state  of  the  Sun,  whose  tempestuous 
atmosphere  of  hydrogen,  the  lightest  substance 
known,  is  found  by  that  greatest  of  detectives, 
the  spectroscope,  to  be  charged  with  the  heaviest 
of  known  metals.  Considering  the  Sun  as  the 
residuum  of  our  fire  mist,  it  could  not  be  so 
flooded  with  hydrogen  as  it  is,  unless  that  ele- 
ment had  pervaded  the  whole  original  nebula. 
It  would  all  have  been  used  up  in  manufacturing 
the  planets.  Indeed,  hydrogen  has  been  found 
picturing  itself  most  strongly  in  the  spectrum  of 
Uranus. 

So  the  great  nebulous  egg,  out  of  which  by  the 
incubation  of  heat  and  gravity  the  broods  of  our 
Solar  System  are  said  to  have  been  hatched,  must, 
like  other  eggs,  in  due  course  of  incubation  have 
had  its  contents  thoroughly  stirred  and  churned 
and  mingled.  It  must  have  come  to  the  same 
general  constitution  throughout.  And,  becoming 
organized  into  worlds  under  quite  the  same  gen- 
eral conditions  throughout,  it  must  have  yielded 


CHEMICAL    CONSTITUTION.  20y 

everywhere  bodies  of  the  same  general  character 
as  to  kind  and  proportion  of  materials. 

Are  the  members  of  our  System  actually  such 
bodies  ?  We  go  to  the  spectroscope  for  answer. 
This  subtle  analyst  confesses  that  terrestrial  ele- 
ments are  very  largely  diffused  through  the  solar 
realm,  but  it  also  tells  us  of  great  differences  in 
the  chemistry  of  its  various  bodies.  For  exam- 
ple, it  tells  us  that  oxygen  and  nitrogen,  both  of 
which  so  abound  in  the  Earth,  and  one  of  which 
makes  up  not  far  from  half  its  substance,  either 
do  not  exist  at  all  in  the  Sun  or  do  not  exist  in 
any  appreciable  proportion  —  while  chromium 
and  other  metals,  which  make  no  figure  in  the 
composition  of  the  Earth,  show  themselves .  in 
great  force  in  the  solar  atmosphere.  Some  four- 
teen familiar  substances  write  out  their  names  in 
a  plain  hand  in  the  spectral  register:  but  most 
of  the  names  we  read  there  are  the  names  of 
perfect  strangers.  Of  the  two  thousand  lines 
that  cross  the  solar  spectrum,  by  far  the  greater 
part  have  nothing  whatever  answering  to  them 
among  terrestrial  elements. 

The  comets,  also,  as  far  as  examined,  show  a 
chemical  treasury  quite  different  from  all  other 
bodies  of  our  System.     Of  the  four  comets  whose 


2CS  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

spectra  have  been  criticised,  two  consist  of  un- 
known elements  ;  while  the  other  two  consist,  one 
of  carbon  and  the  other  of  nitrogen.  Here  we 
have  a  triple  unlikeness  to  the  Earth  and  Sun-- 
but  a  single  element  belonging  to  each  comet,  that 
element  different  for  each,  and  in  half  the  cases  ex- 
amined that  element  quite  new  to  our  chemistry. 
How  could  a  single  element  like  carbon  disengage 
itself  from  the  confused  stirabout  of  the  parent 
mist,  and  set  up  a  sphere  and  revolution  of  its 
own  —  especially  such  a  sphere  and  revolution  ? 
The  idea  that  comets  are  foreign  bodies  will  be 
considered  further  on. 

In  regard  to  the  planets  —  it  is  found  that  the 
solar  light  as  reflected  from  Mars,  Jupiter,  Saturn, 
and  Uranus  gives  as  many  different  spectra,  each 
differing  somewhat  from  the  direct  solar  spec- 
trum ;  showing  that  at  least  the  atmospheres  of 
these  planets  are  to  some  extent  differently  con- 
stituted. And  a  difference  in  the  atmospheres 
implies  a  difference  in  the  bodies  beneath.  We 
sometimes  say  that  a  man  is  known  by  the  com- 
pany he  keeps.  We  are  quite  sure  that  we  can 
divine  his  inner  character,  if  not  from  the  way  he 
dresses,  at  least  from  the  kind  of  atmosphere  he 
breeds  about  himself.     So  we    can  divine  in  the 


MECHANICAL   RELATIONS.  209 

case  of  the  planets.  Different  atmospheres  be- 
token different  interior  chemistries.  In  this  con- 
nection the  case  of  Uranus  is  particularly  striking. 
Its  envelope  consists  largely  of  hydrogen,  but  is 
quite  without  sign  of  oxygen.  Were  oxygen  there 
in  a  free  state,  a  single  spark  would  set  the  planet 
aflame. 

So  the  Solar  System  objects  again  to  that  hy- 
pothesis which,  whatever  may  be  thought  of  its 
real  bearing,  is  in  fact  the  last  stand  and  depend- 
ence of  all  who  in  these  days  try  to  explain  the 
.natural  without  help  of  the  supernatural.  This 
time  the  challenge  comes  from  the  CJiemistries  of 
the  System.  Instead  of  falling  down  before  an 
atom  (say  a  fog-bank  of  atoms,  if  you  please)  and 
saying,  Thou  art  my  Maker,  these  Chemistries 
prefer  to  go  further  for  their  worship  and  fare  bet- 
ter ;  and  send  far  abroad  into  space  their  messen- 
ger-spectra, robed  like  Solomon,  asking,  Where  is 
He  ?  For  that  He  is,  they  can  have  no  manner 
of  doubt.  The  Law  Scheme  breaking  down,  there 
must  be  God.  As  science  now  stands,  there  is 
no  tertium  quid — God  is  the  only  alternative  to 
development. 

Consider  certain  mechanical  relations. 

By  these  I  mean  the  relations  of  the  principal 

T4 


210  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

bodies  of  the  Solar  System  to  each  other  in  re- 
gard to  such  matters  as  size,  density,  atmosphere, 
position,  number  of  satellites. 

One  well-mixed  material  forming  the  fire  mist. 
This  one  material  acted  on  throughout  by  two 
causes,  gravity  and  heat  ;  the  one  steadily  increas- 
ing in  force  at  the  outside,  and  the  other  as  steadily 
diminishing.  This  one  material  steadily  becoming 
smaller  and  denser,  steadily  increasing  its  speed 
of  rotation,  steadily  throwing  off  rings  that  steadily 
become  less.  So  runs  the  hypothesis.  That  is 
to  say,  it  supposes  that  the  members  of  the  Solar 
System  are  formed  successively  out  of  the  same 
material,  by  the  same  causes,  under  the  same 
circumstances,  or  such  as  vary  steadily  in  one 
direction  according  to  a  simple  law.  Of  course 
the  products  should  be  alike  ;  or,  in  chief  points 
of  unlikeness  should  vary  in  the  same  steady, 
straightforward  manner  as  do  the  circumstances 
on  which  they  depend.  Thus,  if  one  member  of 
the  System  is  without  atmosphere  and  water,  all 
the  other  members  should  also  be  without  them. 
If  they  differ  in  density,  the  series  ought  to  show 
a  steady  increase  of  density  toward  the  Sun.  If 
they  differ  in  size  or  number  of  satellites,  the 
series  ought  to  show  a  steady  decrease  toward  the 
Sun  in  these  respects.      So  it  would  seem. 


MECHANICAL   RELATIONS.  211 

What  are  the  facts  ?  We  turn  to  our  Moon  and 
find  it  without  sign  of  water  or  atmosphere  ;  while 
the  Earth  from  whose  surface  it  was  cast  off  is 
well  supplied  with  both.  We  turn  to  Mars  and 
find  that,  though  god  of  war,  he  has  not  a  sin- 
gle henchman  to  attend  him,  not  a  single  page 
even  ;  while  his  two  nearest  neighbors  worth 
mentioning,  on  either  hand,  are  provided  for  ;  in- 
deed, all  the  chiefs  of  the  System  beyond  himself, 
nobly,  though  irregularly,  provided  for.  Running 
eye  along  the  whole  bright  line  of  orbs,  we  notice 
that  in  general  those  near  the  Sun  are  smaller  and 
denser  than  those  more  remote  ;  but,  just  as  soon 
as  we  come  to  particulars,  we  find  we  must  break 
up  completely  the  actual  order  of  succession  that 
we  may  range  the  planets  in  the  order  of  their 
size  or  density.  Mars  is  smaller  than  the  Earth 
or  Venus,  though  further  from  the  Sun.  Saturn  is 
smaller  than  Jupiter,  and  yet  larger  than  either 
Uranus  or  Neptune.  The  great  Giant  of  the  Sys- 
tem, as  if  to  intensify  his  stature,  takes  stand  by 
its  veriest  dwarf.  So  of  the  densities.  There 
are  Uranus  and  Neptune  both  denser  than  Saturn. 
Here  is  Venus  no  denser  than  Mars  and  not  so 
dense  as  the  Earth. 

So  of  the  orbital  eccentricities  and  inclinations. 


212  SE  VENTH  LECTURE. 

So  of  the  rates  of  rotation.  As  we  follow  the 
planets  down  to  the  Sun,  in  the  supposed  order 
of  their  age,  it  is  all  backward  and  forward  after 
a  most  capricious  fashion  —  this  is  the  way  we 
speak  —  with  nearly  all  the  chief  mechanical  ele- 
ments of  the  System.  The  same  perplexing  irreg- 
ularities exist  in  the  satellite  systems,  if  we  may 
take  the  Jovian  family  for  an  example.  In  place 
of  that  steady  variation  in  one  direction  which 
answers  to  the  hypothesis,  we  have  one  strongly 
like,  in  its  break-ups  and  reversions,  to  the  appar- 
ent path  of  a  planet.  In  short,  as  Humboldt 
says,  "  The  planetary  system,  in  the  mechanical 
relations  between  its  members,  does  not  appear 
to  offer  to  our  apprehension  any  stronger  evi- 
dence of  a  natural  necessity  than  does  the  propor- 
tion observed  in  the  distribution  of  land  and 
water  on  the  Earth,  the  configuration  of  conti- 
nents, or  the  height  of  mountain  chains." 

As  to  the  position  of  the  solar  bodies  among 
themselves  —  they  ought  to  lie  in  successive,  well 
separated  groups,  answering  to  the  successive 
rings  of  vapor  cast  off  from  the  nebula.  Thus, 
there  should  be  several  planets  in  the  general 
district  occupied  by  Neptune  ;  after  an  interval, 
another   similar   group    in    the    general    district 


MECHANICAL   RELATIONS.  21  3 

occupied  by  Uranus  ;  and  so  on.  The  solitary 
should  be  set  in  families.  The  planets  should 
show  themselves  of  a  social  turn.  And  the  sat- 
ellites, in  this  respect,  should  take  after  their  par- 
ents. As  humanity  divided  itself  and  went  forth 
into  the  early  world  by  clusters  of  related  fami- 
lies ;  as  northern  Europe  in  our  day  breaks  up 
and  appears  again  by  societies  of  kin  and  neigh- 
bors in  our  western  wilderness  —  so,  on  nebular 
principles,  the  cosmical  vapor  should  have  parted 
and  gone  forth  to  the  peopling  of  the  void  by 
clusters,  rather  than  by  individuals.  For,  it  is 
not  to  be  supposed  that  a  ring  would  generally 
have  but  one  nucleus  ;  or  that,  there  being  sev- 
eral nuclei,  one  of  them  would  generally  prevail 
over  and  finally  absorb  all  others.  The  chances 
are  greatly  against  either  event  in  any  given  ring. 
As  should  be  admitted  with  special  readiness 
by  those  who  admit  that  some  comets,  and  the 
great  meteoric  systems,  and  the  rings  of  Saturn, 
are,  or  may  be,  composed  of  myriads  of  distinct 
bodies. 

Consequently,  there  ought  to  be  in  the  System 
several  cases,  at  least,  of  a  ring  being  resolved 
into  two  or  more  worlds  :  whereas  there  is  only 
one  case  that  can   possibly  be   supposed    to   be 


214  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

such,  namely,  that  of  the  asteroids.  The  chief 
planets  are  all  apart  by  immense  intervals,  such 
as  could  not  separate  bodies  born  of  the  same 
ring.  Each  planet  is  a  hermit.  Each  satellite, 
also,  so  far  as  known,  is  a  hermit — a  very 
Simeon  Stylite,  separated  both  by  horizontal 
wastes  and  wastes  perpendicular  from  all  his 
fellows.  And  as  to  the  clan  of  asteroids  —  if  we 
admit  that  they  all  came  from  one  ring,  in  spite 
of  the  great  difference  between  them  in  orbital 
planes,  then  it  follows  that  a  ring  may  part  into 
more  than  one  hundred  bodies  of  unequal  size 
and  contiguous  paths  and  paths  wonderfully 
interwoven,  which  yet  can  keep  apart  indefinitely 
long :  hence,  that  it  is  very  unlikely  that  in  all 
other  cases,  not  to  say  in  any  other  case,  a  ring 
has  furnished  but  one  world,  or  one  world  has 
devoured  all  the  rest.  The  parent  nebula  may 
be  expected  to  colonize  by  companies,  not  by 
individuals.  Like  the  wicked  man,  it  will  send 
forth  its  children  by  flocks.  It  will  scatter  itself 
in  successive  showers,  instead  of  a  continuous 
drizzle.  The  planets  will  be  Jews  :  eight  tribes, 
if  not  twelve,  from  center  to  outskirt  will  pitch 
nomadic  tents.  Gregarious  planets,  gregarious 
satellites  —  each    class  found,  for  the  most  part, 


MECHANICAL   RELATIONS.  21  5 

in  distinct  groups,  instead  of  each  orb  appearing 
as  the  solitary  heir  and  representative  of  its  own 
ring.  Such  should  be  the  "  manner  of  the  king- 
dom "  —  the  kingdom  over  which  blazes  the  corona 
of  the  Sun,  of  which  the  planets  are  the  great 
Peers,  and  of  which  millions  on  millions  of  com- 
ets and  meteors  are  the  multitudinous  Commons. 
To  suppose  anything  else,  would  be  about  as  un- 
reasonable as  it  would  be  for  a  statistician  to 
suppose  that  Irish  families,  on  the  average,  turn 
out  but  one  child  apiece. 

So  the  Solar  System  continues  to  object  to  that 
hypothesis  which,  whether  it  mean  atheism  or 
not,  is  undeniably  the  last  stand  and  sole  depend- 
ence and  loud  boast  of  all  who  try  to  explain  the 
natural  without  help  of  the  supernatural.  This 
time  the  challenge  is  many-voiced  and  comes 
from  the  Mechanical  Relations  of  our  System.  In 
stead  of  falling  down  before  an  atom  (say,  if  you 
please,  a  great  cloud  of  atoms)  and  saying,  Thou 
art  my  Maker,  these  great  Relations  prefer  to  go 
further  for  their  worship  and  fare  better,  and 
hang  out  signals  to  the  infinite  Beyond  from 
every  promontory  and  hill-top  and  turret  of  the 
System  (whether  its  name  be  density,  or  size,  or 
atmosphere,  or   satellite)  asking,  Where  is    He  ? 


2l6  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

For  that  He  is,  they  can  have  no  manner  of  doubt. 
Where  the  Law  Scheme  breaks  down  there  must 
be  God.  There  is  no  tertinni  quid.  As  science 
now  stands,  a  personal  Creator  is  the  only  alterna- 
tive to  eternal  evolution.  Who  to-day  believes  in 
chance  ?  A  man,  a  Solar  System,  a  Paradise 
Lost,  made  by  a  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms  — 
who  now  believes  that,  or  is  in  danger  of  believ- 
ing it  ?  Not  a  solitary  soul.  It  is  all  law,  eter- 
nal law,  with  present  unbelievers.  And  when 
law  breaks  down  there  is  nothing  left  on  which 
the  reasonable  thought  can  fall  back,  save  "  the 
King  eternal,  immortal,  invisible ;  the  only  wise 
God." 

Consider,  too,  the  rotations  of  the  Solar  System. 

We  find  that  these  rotations  are  not  all  accu- 
rately in  the  planes  of  their  respective  orbits  ;  nor 
is  the  law  of  their  periods  the  same  for  both  plan- 
ets and  satellites  ;  nor  is  the  parallelism  of  their 
axes  to  themselves,  respectively,  disturbed  in  the 
course  of  a  revolution  —  all  of  which  facts,  each 
including  many  particulars,  attack  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis.  And  it  is  a  matter  worth  pointing 
out  that,  in  this  attack,  the  assailants  march  by 
bands,  and  not  by  individuals.  It  is  not  so  many 
separate  soldiers  that  we  see  —  it  is  the  Macedo- 


ROTATIONS.  217 

nian  phalanx.  It  is  not  a  war  of  guerrillas  that 
we  have  —  it  is  rather  a  disciplined  concert  and 
chorus  of  battles.  The  clans  have  gathered,  the 
sections  are  moving,  it  is  almost  "  the  uprising 
of  a  great  People." 

Under  this  head,  I  ask  you  first  to  notice  the 
ring  of  Saturn.  We  are  told  that  in  this  ring 
we  have  an  actual  example  of  those  nebulous 
zones  which  play  so  great  a  part  in  the  nebular 
cosmogony  —  an  actual  example  which  Nature 
has  kindly  stereotyped  and  preserved  as  an  illus- 
tration of  her  way  of  building  worlds.  If  this  is 
so,  I  answer,  the  exterior  division  of  this  rin°- 
whose  distance  from  the  planet  is  nearly  fifty 
thousand  miles,  ought  to  rotate  considerably 
slower  than  the  planet  ;  in  accordance  with  the 
law  which  requires  that  the  radii  describe  equal 
areas  in  equal  times.  Actually,  however,  it  com- 
pletes a  rotation  in  about  the  same  time  as  its 
primary. 

Now  go  on  to  notice  that  the  rotations  of  our 
System  differ  in  the  principle  of  their  periods  for 
the  planets  and  for  the  satellites.  These  periods 
are  smaller  for  the  more  distant  planets  and  larger 
for  the  more  distant  satellites.  And,  so  far  as  the 
satellites  have  been  well   studied  on  the  matter 


2l8  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

they  all  seem  to  rotate  in  about  the  same  time  as 
they  revolve  ;  while  no  such  law  is  found  binding 
the  planets.  Thus,  our  moon  turns  round  once 
on  its  axis  while  it  is  making  one  journey  about 
the  Earth.  So  also  the  moons  of  Jupiter  seem  to 
do  ;  keeping  always  the  same  side  turned  toward 
their  primary.  But  not  a  single  planet  is  known 
which  makes  a  circuit  on  its  axis  in  the  same  time 
it  makes  a  circuit  round  the  Sun.  A  very  singu- 
lar difference  !  How  could  this  be  if  the  System 
was  formed  throughout  in  the  one  way  taught  in 
the  Nebular  Hypothesis  ?  For,  according  to  that 
hypothesis,  the  satellites  come  from  their  prima- 
ries in  precisely  the  same  way  and  under  precisely 
the  same  general  conditions  as  these  primaries  do 
from  the  Sun.  Hence  the  same  general  law  which 
governs  the  rotation-periods  of  the  one  class  of 
bodies  should  govern  those  of  the  other  class. 

Add  to  this  that  the  rotations  of  the  System 
are  not  all  exactly  in  the  planes  of  their  respective 
orbits.  Far  from  it.  The  Earth  rotates  at  an  an- 
gle of  about  230,  Saturn  of  260,  Mars  of  280,  Ve- 
nus of  500,  Neptune  of  76°,  and  Uranus  of  ioo°  ; 
while  not  a  single  planet  or  satellite  is  known 
to  rotate  exactly  in  its  own  orbital  plane.  All 
seem  to  have  made  a  solemn   League  and  Cove- 


ROTATIONS.  219 

nant  with  each  other  not  to  do  it  ;  and  keep  to 
that  Covenant  with  even  more  than  Scottish  de- 
termination. 

How  can  this  agree  with  the  hypothesis  ?  If 
the  System  had  been  formed  in  the  way  supposed, 
all  these  angles  of  rotation  would  have  been  zero. 
For,  suppose  a  rotating  gaseous  ring,  and  a 
nucleus  entangled  in  it.  A  body  so  entangled 
tends  to  have  one  rotation  in  the  plane  of  the 
ring  in  the  course  of  one  revolution  —  let  our 
moon  stand  for  an  example  —  and,  by  the  gradual 
condensation  of  the  ring,  tends  to  have  this  rota- 
tion hastened.  The  gradual  shrinkage  from  all 
quarters  on  the  body,  besides  pressing  it  toward 
the  middle  of  the  ring,  will,  according  to  a  well- 
known  law,  hasten  its  outer  surface  and  retard  its 
inner  in  a  direction  parallel  with  the  middle  plane 
of  the  ring,  and  so  tend  to  make  a  rotation  in 
that  direction.  This  threefold  force,  being  both 
strong  and  persistent  through  vast  periods,  and 
the  last  to  act  on  the  planet  as  it  becomes  de- 
tached and  solidified,  will  at  last  wear  out  any 
•rotation  in  a  different  direction  that  has  chanced 
to  fasten  on  the  nucleus.  For  such  a  rotation 
depends  on  a  force  necessarily  brief  and  changing  ; 
and  is  steadily  resisted   by  the  whole  neighbor- 


220  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

hood  of  atoms  relatively  at  rest,  and  by  the  gen- 
eral equatorial  drift  and  suffrage  of  the  mist  ;  and 
so  can  never  amount  to  much,  or  be  permanent. 

So  strong  a  partnership  against  one  so  weak 
cannot  fail  at  last  to  have  everything  its  own  way. 
It  will  by  degrees  gather  to  itself  all  the  business. 
Its  rivals  will  disappear.  Even  that  general 
equatorial  drift  alone,  a  plenty  of  time  being 
allowed  it,  would  suffice  to  suppress  all  other  rota- 
tion in  favor  of  one  in  the  same  plane  and  direc- 
tion with  itself.  Then,  in  the  last  stages  of  the 
nucleus,  as  it  becomes  a  discrete  and  solid  orb 
and  issues  its  Declaration  of  Independence,  comes 
in  the  zone-condensation  with  its  powerful  forces 
to  confirm  the  result.  As  is  very  common,  just 
as  soon  as  the  victory  is  gained  help  comes. 
Who  of  us  is  not  free  and  proud  to  help  the  man 
who  no  longer  needs  help  ?  At  last  his  cup  runs 
over.  Assurance  is  made  doubly  sure.  So  here. 
And  all  westerly  rotations — which,  apart  from 
the  equatorial  drift,  are  just  as  likely  to  occur  as 
the  easterly  —  are  stopped  and  reversed  ;  and  all 
rotations  out  of  the  plane  of  the  orbit  are  re- 
duced into  it ;  and  the  whole  orb  is  put  under 
heavy  bonds  for  the  future  to  remain  in  the  state 
it  has  reached.     So  it  must  be  on  the  principles 


ROTATIONS.  221 

of  the  hypothesis :    and    so   it   is    very   far   from 
being  in  the  actual  System. 

I  have  stated  that  the  parallelism  of  the  rota- 
tion to  itself  is  not  disturbed  during  a  single  rev- 
olution. So  far  as  astronomers  have  been  able  to 
notice,  this  is  a  fact  ;  and  it  is  universally  taken 
for  true  of  all  the  members  of  the  System.  But 
how  could  it  be  true  if  the  System  was  formed  in 
the  way  supposed  ?  In  all  cases  where  the  axis  of 
rotation  is  not  perpendicular  to  the  orbit,  there 
must  be  a  change  in  its  inclination  to  a  fixed 
plane,  during  a  revolution,  proportional  to  the 
smallness  of  the  inclination.  Where  the  inclina- 
tion is  nothing,  the  axis  will  completely  reverse 
itself  in  the  course  of  a  revolution  —  as  the  spoke 
in  a  wheel  does,  as  it  revolves.  Suppose  a  nucleus 
entangled  in  a  revolving  gaseous  zone.  Let  its 
axis  coincide  with  a  radius  of  that  zone.  Then 
the  nucleus  will  be  borne  round  with  the  interior 
end  of  the  axis  pointing  always  at  the  zonal  cen- 
ter —  as  exactly  and  steadily  as  do  the  lines  of 
gravity  ;  or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  as  exactly 
and  steadily  as  do  all  the  great  Christian  doctrines 
at  the  Cross  —  so  that,  at  opposite  points  of  the 
orbit,  the  same  end  of  the  axis  will  point  in 
directly  opposite  directions.     If  the  axis,  instead 


222  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

of  being  coincident  with  a  radius  of  the  zone,  is 
perpendicular  to  it,  then  there  will  be  no  change 
in  its  direction  during  the  revolution  :  it  will 
always  remain  parallel  with  itself:  and,  in  case  all 
the  revolutions  of  the  System  are  in  the  same 
plane,  all  the  swiftly  going  solar  troops  will  carry 
their  ghostly  spears  in  exacter  parallelism  with 
each  other  than  was  ever  insisted  on  by  the  mar- 
tinets of  our  earthly  armies.  With  the  axis  any- 
where between  perpendicularity  and  coincidence, 
there  will  be  a  change  in  direction  inversely  pro- 
portional to  its  inclination.  But,  as  in  fact  the 
axis  is  generally  far  out  of  the  perpendicular  — 
like  human  nature  itself — it  must  generally  un- 
dergo a  great  change  of  inclination  ;  and  the 
whole  solar  cavalry  will  carry  their  weapons  after 
as  disorderly  a  fashion  as  ever  did  rawest  recruits 
from  the  rawest  provinces. 

So  the  Solar  System  does  not  yet  weary  of  ob- 
jecting to  that  hypothesis,  which,  whether  it  de- 
nies a  God  or  not,  is  undeniably  the  last  stand  and 
whole  dependence  and  loud  boast  and  best  helper 
of  all  who  now  try  to  explain  the  natural  without 
help  of  the  supernatural.  This  time  also  the 
challenge  is  many-voiced,  coming  as  it  does  from 
the  many  Rotations  of  our  System.     Instead  of 


RE  VOL  UTIONS.  223 

falling  down  before  an  atom  (I  am  quite  willing  to 
say  a  nebula  of  atoms,  if  you  choose)  and  saying, 
Thou  art  my  Maker,  these  Rotations  choose  to  go 
further  for  their  worship  and  fare  better  ;  and 
point  every  axis  with  the  pointed  inquiry,  ad- 
dressed to  all  the  heavens,  Where  is  He  ?  For 
that  He  is,  they  can  have  no  manner  of  doubt. 
Where  the  Law  Scheme  fails  there  God  must  be 
supplied.  There  is  no  tertium  quid.  As  science 
now  stands,  an  eternal  Creator  is  the  only  alterna- 
tive to  eternal  evolution.  Who  to-day  believes  in 
chance  ?  A  Newton,  an  astral  system,  a  Meca- 
nique  Celeste  made  by  a  fortuitous  concourse  of 
atoms  —  who  now  believes  that,  or  is  in  any  dan- 
ger of  believing  it  ?  Not  a  solitary  soul.  It  is 
all  law,  eternal  law,  with  the  latest  unbelievers. 
And  when  law  breaks  down,  there  is  nothing  on 
which  the  reasonable  thought  can  fall  back,  save 
"  God,  the  Lord,  He  that  created  the  heavens  and 
stretched  them  out,  He  that  spread  forth  the  earth 
and  that  which  cometh  out  of  it,  He  that  giveth 
breath  to  the  people  upon  it,  and  spirit  to  them 
that  walk  therein." 

Finally,  consider  the  revolutions  of  our  System. 

These  are  not  all  in  the  same  direction,  nor  ex- 
actly circular,  nor  exactly  in  the  plane  of  the  Sun's 


224  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

equator  —  as  they  ought  to  be  if  the  System  was 
formed  after  the  manner  of  the  Nebular  Hypothe- 
sis. On  the  contrary,  none  of  the  bodies  compos- 
ing the  System  fully  meet  all  these  conditions  ; 
while  many  of  them  are  very  far  removed  from 
doing  it,  and  some  may  even  be  said  to  trample 
upon  them  as  they  go  their  shining  way. 

Thus,  there  is  not  a  single  body  known  to  have 
a  strictly  circular  orbit.  Some  orbits  come  very 
near  being  circles,  but  all  are  really  ellipses.  In 
some  cases  the  ellipses  are  very  eccentric.  The 
eccentricity  for  Mercury  is  about  one  fifth  of  the 
semi-major  axis  of  its  orbit,  that  for  Mars  one  tenth, 
that  for  Jupiter  or  Saturn  or  Uranus  one  twen- 
tieth. One  of  the  asteroids,  Polyhymnia,  has  an 
orbit  even  more  drawn  out  than  that  of  Mercury. 
But  the  comets  and  meteoric  systems  are  the  most 
surprising  objects.  Several  of  them  move  in  paths 
many  times  longer  than  they  are  broad,  and  some 
sweep  about  the  sun  on  curves  almost  parabolic 
in  character.  Encke's  comet  is  twelve  times 
nearer  the  sun  at  its  nearest  point  than  at  its 
most  remote.  Halley's  is  fifty-seven  times  nearer  ; 
and  some  of  these  wonderfully  eccentric  bodies 
almost  brush  the  Sun  with  their  fiery  tresses,  and 
then,  as   if  in   mortal  terror,  fly  away  far  beyond 


RE  VOL  UTJONS.  22$ 

the  orbit  of  Neptune.     The  August  and  Novem- 
ber meteoric  systems    almost  rival  the   most  ec- 
centric comets  in  their  paths  ;  both  approaching 
the  Sun  as  near  as  the  Earth,  and  then  going  away 
from  him,  the  one  further  than  Neptune  and  the 
other  than  Uranus.     How  can  such  feats  of  cos- 
mical   knight-errantry  agree  with  a  scheme  that 
supposes  all  the  members  of  the  System  formed 
out  of  exactly  circular  rings,  all  of  whose  matter 
moves  in  exact  circles,  and  which  were  detached 
from  the  solar  nebula  at  the  point  where  the  cen- 
trifugal and  centripetal  forces  were  equal  ?    Under 
these  forces  in  equilibrium,  a  body  must  describe 
a  purely  circular  orbit,  instead  of  one  of  those 
mighty  ovals  which  almost  promises  never  to  re- 
turn into  itself. 

So  they  virtually  admit  who  appeal  in  support 
of  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  to  the  generally 
"  nearly  "  circular  form  of  the  planetary  orbits. 
"  See,"  say  they,  "  how  little  the  path  of  Venus 
differs  from  a.  circle  :  this  is  as  it  should  be  if  the 
worlds  had  a  nebular  origin  as  supposed."  Yes, 
we  see  it  —  but  what  of  the  many  great  excep- 
tions ?  Yes,  we  see  it  —  but  why  say  "  nearly  " 
circular  ?  The  orbits  ought  to  be  quite  circular  — 
every  one  of  them  ought  to  be  quite  circular  —  to 
15 


226  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

meet  the  demands  of  the  Nebular  Theory  :  and 
instead  of  the  comets  running  such  amazing  tilts 
as  they  do  into  Nox  and  Erebus,  as  if  at  the  fixed 
stars,  they  ought  to  go  about  the  Sun  on  paths  as 
round  and  at  distances  as  unchanging  as  if  they 
were  fastened  to  the  solar  center,  each  by  such  an 
inflexible  golden  chain  as  Milton  gives  to  the 
Earth. 

Besides,  according  to  the  hypothesis,  the  revo- 
lutions of  the  Solar  System  ought,  without  ex- 
ception, to  be  exactly  in  the  plane  of  the  Suns 
equator.  The  friends  of  the  hypothesis  should 
admit  this  easily.  It  is  almost  one  of  their  own 
doctrines.  They  say  that  the  solar  orbits  ought 
to  show  a  general  partiality  for  the  solar  equato- 
rial plane  :  and  they  loudly  appeal  to  the  fact  that 
such  a  partiality  exists,  in  support  of  their  views. 
"  See,"  say  they,  "  how  closely  Jupiter  and  other 
planets  keep  to  that  celestial  loadstone,  the  ecliptic  : 
this  is  just  what  we  should  find  if  all  the  bodies 
were  turned  off  from  the  solar  equator  in  the  man- 
ner supposed."  Yes,  we  should  find  that  —  and 
just  a  little  more.  We  should  find  not  only  a 
general  partiality  but  a  universal  one.  We  should 
find  not  merely  a  partiality,  but  such  a  partiality 
as  expresses  itself  in  absolute  union.     Coquetting 


RE  VOL  UT10NS.  227 

between  the  orbits  is  not  enough.  Hard  wooing 
will  not  answer.  Marriage  must  be  consummated. 
And  such  a  marriage  as  never  asks  for  a  divorce, 
or  at  least  never  gets  it,  not  even  from  the  State 
of  Connecticut.  All  the  orbits,  without  exception, 
ought  to  lie,  exactly  and  forever,  in  that  one  plane 
in  which  the  sun  rotates,  and  along  which  its  ex- 
pulsive power  always  acts  to  cast  off  its  children, 
when  their  time  for  leaving  home  and  setting  up 
for  themselves  has  come. 

Let  us  inquire  a  little  into  the  early  history  of 
these  celestial  outcasts.  It  is  supposed  that  all 
the  nuclei  which  happen  to  form  in  any  part  of  the 
parent  mist  are  gradually  drawn  into  its  equatorial 
zone  before  they  ripen  into  solid  worlds.  It  is 
necessary  to  suppose  this.  A  group  of  revolving 
worlds  cannot  be  formed  by  the  breaking  up  of 
a  mist  into  several  sporadic  nuclei  in  advance  of  a 
general  rotation  :  for,  such  a  rotation  must  begin 
at  once  on  the  formation  of  the  mist  from  what- 
ever cause  ;  also,  without  it,  such  nuclei  being 
stationary  in  respect  to  each  other  and  the  center 
of  gravity  of  the  mist,  would  gradually  settle  in 
straight  lines  on  that  center  —  it  being  necessary 
to  revolution  about  that  center,  on  the  part  of  any 
body,  that   it   should  have   a    motion  across   the 


228  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

straight  line  joining  the  two.  Nor  can  such  a 
sporadic  group  be  formed  after  general  rotation 
begins.  For,  conceive  the  mist  with  its  rotation 
and  bulging  equator  well  established.  This  bulge 
rises  gradually  from  the  poles  and  reaches  its 
highest  at  the  equator.  When  a  part  about  this 
highest  point  is  thrown  off  as  a  ring,  the  sides  fall 
in  on  both  hands  and  swell  out  into  another 
equatorial  bulge.  So  an  immense  suction  is  es- 
tablished. Permanent  currents  set  in  from  both 
poles  toward  trie  equator.  They  are  the  Trade 
Winds  of  the  mist,  and  by  them  whatever  nuclei 
may  be  near  the  surface,  away  back  to  the  poles, 
will  be  driven,  like  so  many  ice-bergs  which  they 
are  not,  or  like  so  many  fire-bergs  which  they  are, 
toward  the  equator.  Of  course  these  are  the 
nuclei  that  have  the  greatest  ripeness,  because 
they  are  the  nearest  the  condensing  cold  space  ; 
and  the  ripest  of  all  are  those  nearest  the  equator, 
and  especially  those  in  the  detached  equatorial 
ring,  because  these  are  most  remote  from  the  cen- 
ter and  most  exposed  to  the  condensing  cold.  The 
great  nebular  tree,  like  other  trees,  has  its  most 
advanced  fruit  on  the  outside.  Thus  the  nuclei 
near  the  surface,  all  over  the  mist,  will  be  gradu- 
ally drawn,  in  the  order  of  ripeness,  into  the  equa- 
torial regions,  as  ring  after  ring  is  thrown  off. 


RE  VOL  U  TIONS.  2  2  9 

Of  course  the  same  influences  that  stress  the 
cosmical  embryos  toward  the  equatorial  zone, 
and  secure  that  every  one  of  them  shall  reach  it 
before  ripening  into  a  solid  world,  will  finally 
carry  them  all  to  the  central  plane  of  that  zone, 
which  is  the  final  goal  of  all  the  influences.  This 
is  the  plane  of  form  equilibrium,  which  always 
tends  to  become  the  plane  of  the  center  of  grav- 
ity. It  is  also  the  plane  toward  which  condensa- 
tion by  cold  tends  to  drive  the  atoms  ;  also  the 
plane  of  motional  equilibrium ;  in  fine,  the  plane 
toward  which  the  whole  System,  by  all  causes  of 
movement  that  can  act  on  it,  strains.  It  is  the 
center  of  the  wheel  where  all  the  spokes  meet, 
and  where  they  are  all  held  fast  by  an  iron  band. 
This  is  admitted,  virtually,  by  the  friends  of  the 
Nebular  Hypothesis  when  they  appeal  to  the 
exceedingly  thin  ring  of  Saturn  as  an  example 
of  a  ripened  zone  —  a  ring  forty  miles  thick  and 
one  hundred  thousand  miles  broad,  and,  in  their 
view,  composed  of  discrete  bodies.  Hence,  in 
the  immense  course  of  ages  spent  in  the  ripen- 
ing, each  planet-seed  will  settle  accurately  into 
this  equatorial  plane,  and  there  go  on  developing 
into  the  great  world  umbrageous  with  the  mys- 
teries   of  organism    and    life.     Really,    according 


230  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

to  the  view  of  atheistic  friends  of  the  Nebular 
Scheme,  these  tendencies  toward  the  central 
plane  have  had  an  eternity  to  work  in  :  for,  these 
men  have  to  suppose  that  all  the  past  has  been 
occupied  in  alternate  constructions  and  destruc- 
tions of  the  System  under  the  constant  pressure 
of  these  tendencies.  Suppose  the  planets  to 
gradually  approach  the  Sun  through  the  resist- 
ance of  an  ether  pervading  the  System.  Wheel- 
ing about  their  flaming  goal  in  ever  narrowing 
rounds  and  at  ever  increasing  pace,  the  cosmical 
chariots  at  last  strike  against  it,  and,  with  broken 
axle  and  shattered  frame,  disappear  from  the  race- 
course. Up  flames  the*  solar  bonfire  fiercer  than 
ever  !  Out  swells  the  fiery  nebula  till  the  whole 
solar  amphitheater,  and  more,  is  ablaze !  King 
Arthur  is  dead,  and  each  knight  of  the  Round 
Table.  But  Arthur  and  his  knights  shall  live 
again,  that  great  Table  shall  be  reset,  and  then 
each  hero  shall  sit  at  it  more  squarely  than  ever. 
But  what  happens  meanwhile  ?  As  the  planets 
approach  the  Sun  the  inclinations  of  their  orbits 
to  the  solar  equator  gradually  lessen  under  the 
action  of  its  protuberance  :  at  last  they  fall  into 
the  Sun  with  a  motion  more  nearly  than  now,  if 
not   exactly,  in    its  equatorial  plane,  and  with  a 


RE  VOL  UTIONS.  2  3  I 

velocity  the  same  as  that  of  the  equator.  This 
fierce  fall  itself  must  alter  somewhat  the  plane 
of  the  Sun's  rotation,  and  bring  it  nearer  the 
orbit  of  the  planet  ;  and,  in  the  resulting  fire 
mist,  the  planets  must  be  represented  by  rotat- 
ing nuclei  more  equatorially  disposed  than  at 
present.  So  the  approach  to  the  equator  would 
go  on,  through  successive  reconstructions,  till 
at  last  the  approach  would  become  an  arrival, 
and  all  the  planets  move  accurately  in  the  plane 
of  the  Sun's  equator.  At  last  the  grand  climac- 
teric is  reached.  By  littles  and  littles  the  planet- 
ary millennium  has  come.  Henceforth  shall 
nothing  disturb  the  Concord  of  the  Orbits. 

In  the  same  way  it  may  be  shown  that  the 
satellites  ought  to  move  accurately  in  the  equa- 
torial planes  of  their  primaries.  But  these,  as  I 
have  shown,  ought  in  all  cases  to  coincide  with 
their  orbital  planes,  and  so  with  the  plane  of  the 
Sun's  equator  and  of  the  ecliptic. 

So  the  hypothesis  demands.  But,  on  looking 
at  the  actual  heavens,  we  find  the  demand  not 
acceded  to  in  a  single  instance  ;  and,  in  some 
cases,  flatly  and  even  sternly  refused.  Not  a 
planet  joins  the  Earth  in  moving  exactly  in  the 
plane   of    the   ecliptic.     Pallas   crosses    it   at   an 


232  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

angle  of  340.  The  satellites  of  Uranus,  and 
probably  Uranus  itself,  cross  it  almost  perpen- 
dicularly. As  much  ^s  suspected  of  Neptune. 
As  to  the  comets  and  meteoric  systems  —  they 
have  a  sovereign  contempt  and  perpendicular 
aversion  for  all  rules  in  the  matter  ;  and,  in 
their  headlong  steeple-chase  through  space,  tear 
across  our  plane  just  as  may  happen  to  be  con- 
venient, whether  at  90  of  inclination  or  at  900. 

Next  look  at  the  direction  of  the  revolutions 
in  our  System.  This  ought  to  be  the  'same 
throughout  :  because  all  the  revolutions  are  sup- 
posed to  come  from  one  cause,  namely,  the  rota- 
tion of  the  solar  nebula.  This  rotation  must 
throw  off  the  planets  in  its  own  direction  (as 
who  does  not  know  who  has  seen  the  grindstone 
casting  off  its  drops  and  sparks,  or  the  millstone 
its  grain)  :  these,  in  their  turn,  must  throw  off 
satellites  in  the  direction  of  the  planetary  rota- 
tions. But  these  rotations,  as  we  have  seen, 
should,  according  to  the  theory,  be  in  the  planes 
of  their  respective  orbits,  and  so  in  the  plane  of 
the  Sun's  equator.  But  actually  they  are  not. 
What  we  are  entitled  to  find  we  do  not  find. 
While  an  easterly  motion  is  the  rule,  there  are 
many    striking    exceptions.      The    satellites    of 


RE  VOL  UTIONS.  233 

Uranus  move  from  east  to  west  :  probably  the 
primary  does  the  same.  Very  considerable  reason 
exists  for  thinking  that  this  westerly  motion  is 
shared  by  Neptune  and  its  satellites.  It  certainly 
is  by  the  meteoric  system  of  November.  And 
not  a  few  comets  join  in  this  retrograde,  and  run 
backward  on  their  orbits  faster  and  more  fiercely 
than  ever  planet  ran  forward  —  as  backward 
going  people  are  apt  to  do. 

It  is  commonly  allowed  that  many  of  the 
comets  could  never  have  come  from  the  same  fire 
mist  as  the  planets.  And  no  wonder.  How  can 
one  look  at  those  immensely  elongated  and  almost 
upright  orbits,  as  well  as  at  the  singular  chemical 
constitution  and  fierce  retrogrades  of  the  ghostly 
bodies  that  traverse  them,  and  do  less  ?  Not  La 
Place.  He  said  they  must  be  foreign  bodies. 
They  must  be  importations  from  beyond  our 
solar  seas.  One  day  our  System  in  its  progress 
through  space  neared  these  lost  Children  of  the 
Mist,  as  they  wandered  about  the  wilderness 
spaces  without  a  protector,  and  benevolently  took 
them  into  its  own  family  —  despite  their  extrava- 
gant and  undisciplined  ways.  Such  Phaetons, 
such  break-neck  riders,  such  incorrigible  vagrants, 
were  enough  to  corrupt  the  habits  of  the  staidest 


234  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

young  family  in  Planetdom  ;  and  yet  the  pitiful 
sire  opened  his  arms  and  took  them  in.  This 
was  very  kind  of  him  —  for  aught  I  can  see,  im- 
possibly kind.  For,  according  to  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis  these  stray  comets  must  have  be- 
longed at  first  to  some  fire  mist  and  its  system  of 
worlds  ;  and,  once  members  of  such  a  system, 
how  could  they  have  been  parted  from  it  and 
united  to  our  System,  save  by  such  a  near  ap- 
proach of  the  two  to  each  other  as  must  have 
immensely  changed  the  economy  of  both,  and 
probably  kept  them  together  ever  after  ?  Systems 
fairly  brushing  each  other  —  especially  sporadic 
ones  with  slow  motions  —  would  not  part  com- 
pany in  a  hurry.  They  would  not  part  at  all. 
But  there  is  no  evidence  that  stellar  systems 
have  ever  grazed  each  other  in  this  manner  — 
much  less  that  it  has  been  a  frequent  event,  as  it 
would  need  to  be,  considering  the  great  number 
of  comets.  Certainly  our  System  has  never  been 
party  to  a  single  such  event  within  the  scope  of 
history  and  tradition.  We  are  now,  and,  to  the 
best  of  our  knowledge,  always  have  been,  apart 
by  almost  immeasurable  intervals  from  all  the 
stars  :  indeed,  it  could  not  be  otherwise  consist- 
ently with  the  hypothesis  which  in  the  last  resort 


RE  VOL  UTIONS.  235 

derives  all  the  systems  of  space  from  one  great 
fire  mist,  and  of  course  relates  them  to  each  other 
very  much  as  the  planets  are  related,  only  on  a 
far  vaster  scale  of  intervals  —  while  even  the 
planets  are  so  far  apart  that  not  one  of  them  is 
able  to  draw  off  bodies  belonging  to  another. 
They  feel  its  influence,  but  are  not  overcome  by 
it.  Like  the  best  men  under  temptation,  they 
may  round  out  their  orbits  a  little  toward  the 
tempter  ;  but  yet  they  go  firmly  on  their  way, 
holding  fast  to  the  company  and  course  to  which 
they  belong. 

It  should  be  noted  that  no  disturbing  influences 
of  the  planets  and  other  members  of  our  System, 
among  themselves,  can  account  for  either  their 
reverse  motion  in  the  orbits,  or  their  eccentrici- 
ties, or  their  variety  of  plane.  Plainly  not  for  the 
retrograde  motion.  Almost  as  plainly,  not  for 
their  variety  of  plane  :  for,  if  all  the  bodies  had 
originally  been  set  revolving  in  the  equatorial 
plane  of  the  Sun,  their  actions  on  each  other, 
being  always  within  that  plane,  could  never  tend 
to  draw  from  it.  So  with  the  eccentricities.  The 
orbits,  though  flexible  to  a  certain  extent,  are  not 
like  some  hoop  of  rubber  which  one  can  draw  out 
into  a  most  eccentric  oval  without  breaking.     See 


236  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

how  the   boy  strains   between   hand    and  hand ! 
The  circle  has  become  almost  a  line !     But  the 
orbital  diameters  of  our  System  can  only  vary  from 
age  to  age  by  the  merest  trifles.     La  Grange  has 
shown  that  the   greatest  possible  change  in  the 
eccentricities,  from  the  mutual  actions  of  the  Sys- 
tem, is  extremely  small  —  in  some  cases  less  than 
the  eccentricities    themselves   at    their    smallest. 
For  example,  the  least  eccentricity  of  Mercury  is 
0.1886,    and    that    of    Mars    0.0746.       But    the 
changes  in  these  numbers  for  two  hundred  thou- 
sand years,  reckoned  from  a.  d.  1800  as  middle 
point,    are  respectively   only  0.0170  and  0.0347. 
In    fact,    the   theory  of  gravity   gives    the   least 
change  to    those    small  planets  which  have    the 
most  eccentric  orbits.     Surely  it  is  not  a  remark- 
able merit  in  an  hypothesis  that  it  gives  the  least 
explanation  where  the  most  is  needed  !     Besides, 
if   the  eccentricities  were  due  to  the  disturbing 
actions  of  the  worlds  on  each  other,  the  fluctua- 
tion would  be  about  a  circle  as  the  mean  figure. 
But  the  mean  figure  is  not  a  circle,  but  an  ellipse. 
The  eccentricity  is   never  zero  in  a  single  solar 
orbit.     By  no  means  the  only  class  of  orbits  of 
which  this  can  be  said ! 

So   once   more    the    Solar    System    shakes  its 


REVOLUTIONS.  237 

bright  locks  horizontally  at  that  hypothesis 
which,  though  some  deem  it  not  inconsistent  with 
Theism,  is  undeniably  the  pet  and  toast  and 
boast,  the  philosopher  and  orator  and  household 
gods,  of  the  latest  atheism  trying  hard  to  explain 
the  natural  without  help  from  the  supernatural. 
This  time,  also,  the  challenge  is  many-voiced, 
coming  as  it  does  from  all  the  many  Revolutions 
of  the  System.  Instead  of  falling  down  before 
an  atom  (I  am  quite  willing  to  say  a  universe  of 
atoms,  if  you  choose)  and  saying,  Thou  art  my 
Maker,  the  Revolutions  prefer  to  go  further  for 
their  worship,  in  hope  of  faring  better  ;  and  send 
off  from  all  their  westerly,  elliptic,  and  inclined 
orbits  unlimited  tangents  and  centrifugals  of  tel- 
egram into  the  great  void,  asking,  Where  is  He  ? 
For  that  He  is,  they  can  have  no  manner  of 
doubt.  Where  the  Law  Scheme  does  not  answer 
God  must  be  accepted.  There  is  no  tertium  quid. 
As  science  now  stands,  the  only  alternative  to 
eternal  evolution  is  an  eternal  Creator.  Who  to- 
day believes  in  chance  ?  Newtons  and  Miltons, 
celestial  systems  by  hosts,  Principias  and  Iliads, 
made  by  a  fortuitous  concourse  of  atoms  —  who 
now  believes  that,  or  is  in  any  danger  of  believ- 
ing it  ?     Law,  eternal  law  —  this  is   the  present 


238  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

chorus  of  all  unbelievers.  And  when  law  breaks 
down,  what  but  a  personal  Creator  can  the  rea- 
sonable thought  fall  back  upon  ?  Nothing.  It 
goes  up  and  down  the  spaces  asking  for  God. 
Nor  does  it  ask  in  vain.  Though  azure  seas  on 
seas  may  say,  He  is  not  in  us  ;  and  deeps  on 
deeps  beyond  may  say,  He  is  not  in  us  ;  and  a 
still  remoter  hell  and  destruction  may  say,  We 
have  only  heard  the  fame  thereof  with  our  ears  — 
He  is  at  last  found  sitting  in  the  very  zenith,  and 
on  the  circle  of  the  heavens.  And  then  the  whole 
Solar  System,  from  center  to  circumference 
unexplained  by  mere  naturalism,  and  from  center 
to  circumference  explained  by  the  supernatural, 
solemnly  lifts  confessing  hands,  thick  as  grain 
stalks  by  the  Nile,  and  says,  /  believe  in  God,  the 
Father  Almighty,  Maker  of  heaven  and  earth. 

This  ends  my  list  of  facts  from  the  Home 
Field.  It  is  a  small  field  —  only  some  thousands 
of  millions  of  miles  across,  and  ruled  by  a  globe 
only  about  a  million  of  miles  in  diameter  —  but 
then  it  is  near  to  us,  and  we  are  able  to  see  things 
in  detail  to  an  extent  impossible  in  remoter 
regions.  And,  altogether,  for  so  narrow  a  district, 
it  has  quite  a  breadth  of  story  to  tell  about  the 
Nebular  Hypothesis. 


WHAT  NEXT?  239 

In  the  next  lecture  we  will  pass  on  to  a  wider 
domain.  We  will  pass  from  the  Home  Astron- 
omy to  the  Foreign,  from  the  canton  to  the  em- 
pire, from  our  Solar  System  to  that  distant  realm 
of  stellar  and  nebular  glory  where  distance  is  the 
least  of  the  things  that  "  lend  enchantment  to  the 
view."  Here,  if  I  mistake  not,  we  shall  hear  the 
same  testimony  from  richer  voices,  and  from  the 
very  latest.  Astronomy.  Sun-clouds,  and  clouds 
of  suns,  will  "  take  up  the  wondrous  tale  and  re- 
peat the  story  of  their  birth."  And  it  will  be  the 
story  of  a  birth,  not  by  law,  but  by  God.  Per- 
haps, these  higher  witnesses  will  be  even  more 
communicative  than  those  we  have  just  heard. 
Perhaps,  even,  we  shall  find  their  gleanings  better 
than  the  vintage  of  the  Solar  System.  This  Sys- 
tem, by  the  present  extreme  light  and  heat  of  its 
center,  by  its  various  chemical  constitution,  by 
its  diverse  mechanical  relations,  and  by  numerous 
features  of  its  rotations  and  revolutions,  has  al- 
ready told  us  much.  And  it  might  have  told  us 
more  if  we  had  chosen  to  cross-question  it  —  es- 
pecially if  we  had  chosen  to  ask,  not  merely  about 
things  inconsistent  with  the  Nebular  Hypothesis, 
but  also  about  things  which  it  leaves  unexplained. 


240  SEVENTH  LECTURE. 

But  the  most  will  be  told  by  that  great  Foreign 
Realm  whose  breadth  fatigues  our  thought :  and, 
as  we  pass  along  its  glorious  highways,  systems 
after  systems  will  present  themselves  to  us,  and 
almost  ask  permission  to  drown  with  their  sub- 
limer,  but  chording,  voices  the  witnessing  of  the 
Solar  System.  Hear  !  "  Lo,  the  heavens  are  not 
self-sown.  Their  bright  harvests  are  not  of  spon- 
taneous growth.  Yonder  great  prairies  of  the 
sky  did  not  clothe  themselves  in  the  green  of  suns 
and  worlds  —  did  not  stock  themselves  with  these 
astonishing  conservatories,  and  rear  amid  them 
these  gleaming  Sydenhams  of  beauty  and  wonder. 
Never  did  such  palaces  build  their  own  splen- 
dors —  never  did  such  gardens  do  their  own  sow- 
ing and  planting  and  arranging.  There  is  a 
Heavenly  Sower,  Planter,  Builder.  Some  su- 
preme Virgil  sung  these  wonderful  Bucolics  in 
worlds.  Some  celestial  Linneus  set  up  this  celes- 
tial Jardin  des  Plantes.  Some  Divine  Person  and 
Potentate  set  up  these  magnificent  Concordats 
through  the  heavens,  far  and  near." 

So,  with  voice  that  ought  to  make  itself  heard 
specially  by  every  astronomer,  and  well  by 
every  one   who   can    understand   astronomy,  the 


WHAT  NEXT?  24 1 

whole  astronomic  field,  domestic  and  foreign, 
will  declare  itself  against  that  scheme  of  nat- 
uralism which  not  only  makes  the  celestial  sys- 
tems begin  and  end  in  smoke,  but  finds  in  that 
smoke  all  the  attributes  of  a  Creator. 


16 


VIII. 

CONFLICT     WITH     STELLAR 
ASTRONOMY. 

Ets   tcus   aXeOeiataiv,  ets  lariv  ©eos, 

tV09   OVpOLVOV  T    €T€V^€. SofiJlOCleS. 

Bene  autem  universus  mundus  Dei  templum  vocatur, 
propter  illos,  qui  aestimant  nihil  esse  aliud  Deum,  nisi 
ccelum  et  ccelestia  ista  quae  cernimus.  — Macrobius. 


VIII.  Conflict  with  Stellar  Astronomy. 

i.  A  PRINCIPLE 246 

2.  VISIBLE   SYSTEMS 248 

3.  NO   HUGE   CENTERS 250 

4.  WITHOUT  CERTAIN  GRADUATIONS       .        .  .252 

5.  VARIOUS   PLANES 256 

6.  ECCENTRIC   ORBITS 258 

7.  DIFFERENT  CHEMISTRIES 259 

8.  A  DREAM 26a 


EIGHTH   LECTURE, 


CONFLICT    WITH    STELLAR    ASTRON- 
OMY. 

'  I  ^RUE  science  is  not  easily  overvalued.     Only 
■*•     one  thing  is  worth  more.     What  that  is  you 
do  not  need  to  have  me  say  in  so  many  words. 

As  much  cannot  be  said  in  favor  of  what  is 
sometimes  called  scientific  speculation.  That  is 
a  very  different  matter.  While  often  useful,  and 
even  necessary,  as  preparing  the  way  for  science, 
it  is  not  seldom  totally  worthless  and  even  per- 
nicious in  its  scope.  It  would  be  hard  to  find 
among  the  professed  rhapsodies  of  poets  things 
more  extravagant  in  conception,  more  lame  in  ar- 
gument, and  more  strange  to  the  world  of  fact  and 
experience  than  are  some  of  the  notions  now  be- 
ing put  before  the  world  under  the  great  name  of 
science.  The  Doctrine  of  Metempsychosis  is  a 
great  piece  of  sobriety  compared  with  the  Doc- 
trine of  Evolution. 


246  EIGHTH  LECTURE. 

In  the  last  lecture,  I  spoke  of  the  origin  of 
worlds  and  astronomic  systems  ;  and  tried  to 
make  clear  that  the  actual  Solar  System  offers  to 
the  Nebular  Hypothesis  insuperable  objections. 
Among  these  objections  are  the  present  extreme 
light  and  heat  of  the  sun,  the  various  chemistry  of 
the  System,  its  diverse  mechanical  relations,  and 
whole  sheaves  of  difficulties  bound  up  into  two  by 
the  words  rotations  and  revolutions. 

We  will  now  widen  our  view.  Instead  of  a 
horizon  which  just  manages  to  pass  around  Nep- 
tune and  the  most  outpost  comet,  let  us  have  that 
grander  horizon  which  takes  in  the  fixed  stars 

WITH  THEIR  VARIOUS  SYSTEMS  OF  KINDRED  SUNS. 

What  say  these  higher  systems  to  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis  —  to  the  astronomical  part  of  that 
Law  Scheme  which  is  now  so  generally  used  in 
the  interest  of  unbelief,  and  on  which  so  many  are 
now  gliding,  with  all  sails  set,  into  the  black  deep 
of  atheism  ?  Do  they  speak  against  it  ?  If  so, 
what  do  they  speak  ? 

Before  answering  these  questions,  I  must  call 
your  attention  more  particularly  to  the  full  mean- 
ing of  the  Nebular  Hypothesis.  It  means  much 
more  than  appears  on  its  face.  It  means  that  each 
stellar  system,  however  large,  is  derived  from  a 


A   PRINCIPLE.  247 

single  fire  mist  :  for,  if  it  supposes  several  fire 
mists  as  the  source  of  the  system,  it  has  to  sup- 
pose them  existing*  as  a  system  of  revolving 
bodies,  and  so  begins  its  explanation  of  Nature  at 
a  point  which  itself  needs  explanation.  Also,  the 
scheme  cannot  avoid  calling  in  the  supernatural 
save  by  supposing  that  each  group  of  worlds,  built 
up  after  its  manner,  finally  falls  together  at  its  cen- 
ter of  gravity  and  goes  back  to  the  gaseous  state, 
and  so  on  in  eternal  cycle  :  and  the  same  natural 
causes  that  would  bring  this  about  for  each  planet- 
ary group  belonging  to  a  stellar  system,  would 
bring  it  about  for  the  whole  system  however 
large,  and  from  time  to  time  resolve  it  into  one 
fire  mist.  Accordingly,  it  is  an  essential  part  of 
the  Nebular  Hypothesis,  as  held  by  atheists,  that 
not  only  such  a  small  system  as  our  sun  presides 
over,  but  also  all  those  group  and  cluster  sun- 
systems  whose  vastness  appals  the  imagination, 
and  even  that  ultimate  system  which  throws  its 
stupendous  tentacuke  about  all  the  starry  nations 
, —  that  each  of  these  came  from  one  great  nebula. 
Just  think  of  that  greatest  nebula  of  all,  that  one 
all-comprehending  fire  mist,  that  Mighty  Cloud 
which  at  some  remote  time  was  the  sum  of  all 
material   things  !      It   is  from   this   last   unit  of 


248  EIGHTH  LECTURE. 

Astronomy  —  contracting,  rotating,  accelerating, 
casting  off  rings,  compacting  its  rings  into  spheres 
—  we  must  manage  to  get  such  stellar  systems 
as  we  find  peopling  the  remoter  depths  of  the 
heavens.  And,  in  general,  each  system  of  stars, 
whatever  its  size,  must  have  come  from  one 
nebula  ;  and  this  one  nebula,  as  we  have  already 
seen,  could  only  separate  itself  into  worlds  by  the 
breaking  up  of  successive  equatorial  rings. 

Now  let  us  notice  some  facts  as  to  the  stellar 
systems  inconsistent  with  these  views. 

1.  There  are  multitudes  of  stellar  systems  dis- 
tinctly and  gloriously  visible  —  not  a  few  of  them 
of  immense  size. 

According  to  the  hypothesis,  there  ought  to  be 
no  visible  self-luminous  stellar  systems  at  all ;  at 
least  none  of  many  members.  Judging  from  our 
own  solar  group,  by  the  time  the  central  part  of  a 
fire  mist  is  in  the  state  of  our  sun,  all  the  bodies 
thrown  off  from  it  ought  to  be  cool  and  without 
light  of  their  own.  Even  Mercury  shines  only  by 
reflected  light.  It  has  cooled  away  into  darkness, 
before  a  new  zone  has  been  cast  off  from  the  sun, 
or  the  solar  surface  ceased  to  be  at  white  heat. 
Now  the  central  parts  of  many  systems  appear 
quite  like  our  sun  ;    and  so  the    systems  should 


VISIBLE  SYSTEMS.  249 

have  no  visible  distant  outskirts  —  every  system 
ought  to  consist  of,  at  most,  only  one  or  two  visi- 
ble members.  But,  in  reality,  we  have  shining  on 
the  naked  eye,  and  especially  on  the  eye  of  the 
telescope,  hosts  of  systems  much  larger  than  this  : 
sometimes  of  prodigious  size  both  as  to  number 
of  orbs  and  the  space  through  which  they  are  dis- 
tributed ;  wholly  self-luminous,  as  their  spectra 
show  ;  and  not  seldom  showing  on  their  remote 
borders  as  intense  a  brilliancy  as  at  the  very  cen- 
ter. 

2.  Many  a  stellar  system  is  without  a  dominant 
central  orb. 

Though  there  is  often  considerable  difference  in 
size  among  the  members  of  a  star-group,  yet  there 
is  seldom,  if  ever,  so  great  difference  in  favor  of 
some  one  star  as  the  analogy  of  our  system  and 
the  principle  of  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  seem  to 
call  for.  In  some  cases  what  seems  the  heart  of 
the  system  is  held  by  a  body  no  larger  than  any 
other  member  ;  in  some  cases  it  is  held  by  a  body 
much  smaller  than  the  average  ;  and  in  by  far  the 
greater  number  of  cases  it  is  held  by  no  body  at 
all.  The  center  of  gravity  is  in  mere  empty  space. 
The  real  pivot  of  the  system  is  totally  invisible. 
Most  astronomers  would  say  with  Humboldt  that 


2 SO  EIGHTH  LECTURE. 

this  is  true  of  all  the  multiple   stars.     Like   too 
many  of  us,  they  revolve  about  nothing. 

But  this  is  not  according  to  the  hypothesis  — 
which  requires  at  the  center  of  every  system,  not 
only  some  orb  (for  I  would  like  to  know  how  it 
is  possible  for  a  fire  mist,  by  mere  rotation,  to 
empty  its  center  of  all  matter),  but  also  an  orb 
much  greater  than  any  other  member  of  the 
system,  and  great  in  proportion  to  the  size  of 
the  system.  In  all  the  satellite  systems  which 
we  can  observe,  the  center  is  held  by  a  body  not 
only  much  larger  than  any  one  companion,  but 
even  much  larger  than  all  its  companions  put 
together.  The  same  is  true  of  our  Solar  System. 
In  both  stature  and  governing  power  the  sun  is 
overwhelmingly  the  king  of  the  group.  Much 
more  ought  there  to  be  a  kingly  visible  center  to 
all  those  much  larger  stellar  systems  which  show 
themselves  in  remote  space.  For  the  larger  the 
fire  mist,  out  of  which  a  system  is  made,  the 
greater,  other  things  being  equal,  must  be  the 
density  of  its  central  region,  and  the  greater 
the  centripetal  force  at  a  given  distance  from 
the  center,  and  of  course  the  greater  the  distance 
from  the  center  at  which  a  given  centrifugal  force 
will    succeed   in   casting   off  a   ring.     Also,  the 


NO   HUGE    CENTERS.  25  I 

denser  the  central  region  is  the  less  will  it  con- 
tract by  a  given  loss  of  heat,  and  the  sooner  it 
will  reach  the  point  where  it  will  not  contract  at 
all.  Thus  the  greater  central  density  of  a  large 
nebula  must  act  in  two  ways  to  give  a  greater 
central  orb,  namely,  by  increasing  the  centripetal 
force,  and  by  resisting  the  growth  of  the  centrif- 
ugal by  contraction.  Hence,  as  the  very  smallest 
systems,  and  all  which  are  known  to  us,  have 
dominating  central  orbs,  much  more  will  the 
great  stellar  systems  have  them  :  and  the  larger 
the  system  the  larger  will  be  the  orb.  This  is 
according  to  what  we  observe  among  the  small 
systems  with  which  we  are  connected  ;  which 
range  in  the  following  order,  both  as  to  the  size 
of  the  system  and  the  size  of  the  central  body  — 
the  Earth's,  Neptune's,  Uranus's,  Saturn's,  Jupi- 
ter's, the  Sun's.  How  amazingly  large  ought  to 
be  the  central  world  of  such  a  system  as  the 
great  cluster  in  Hercules,  or  the  Milky  Way ! 
It  ought  to  be  an  emperor.  It  ought  to  be  Caesar 
Augustus  among  the  emperors.  Alcyone,  espec- 
ially, ought  to  appear  in  our  sky  with  almost 
solar  glory.  Though  now  some  12,000  times 
larger  than  our  sun,  it  ought  to  be  millions  on 
millions  of  times  larger  still.     And  our  benighted 


252  .  EIGHTH  LECTURE. 

earth,  whose  sky  is  perpetually  illustrious  with 
mighty  groups,  ought  to  be  so  far  like  that  Better 
Country  of  which  we  have  heard,  and  which  we 
reverently  hope  for,  that  we  could  say  of  it,  And 
there  is  no  night  there. 

3.  Many  a  stellar  system  presents  no  graduated 
appearance  as  to  the  light,  distance,  a?zd  size  of  its 
members,  from  the  center  outward. 

According  to  the  Nebular  Hypothesis,  the 
stars  in  each  system  were  ripened  successively, 
at  immense  intervals,  and  are  in  widely  different 
stages  of  combustion.  These  different  stages 
ought  to  show  themselves  in  a  certain  graduated 
aspect  of  the  system  as  to  light.  Its  brightest 
part  should  be  the  center,  and  it  should  gradually 
shade  away  toward  the  outskirts.  This  should 
be  specially  noticeable  in  large  systems. 

That  there  is  a  considerable  number  of  sys- 
tems whose  light  is  graduated  after  this  manner 
is  well  known.  The  trouble  is  that  they  are  not 
universal.  Nay,  the  trouble  is  that  they  make 
but  a  small  part  of  the  stellar  domain.  Almost 
all  the  multiple  stars,  and  scattered  groups  con- 
sisting of  members  physically  connected,  may 
be  cited  in  proof.  In  these,  whatever  star  you 
may  take  as  the  structural  center  of  the  system, 


WITHOUT  CERTAIN  GRADUATIONS.  253 

you  cannot  make  out  a  gradual  fading  in  the 
light  as  the  eye  passes  outward  from  star  to  star. 
The  same  is  true  of  some  large  clusters.  In 
nearly  four  hundred  systems  out  of  six  hundred, 
as  examined  by  Struve,  the  stars  throughout  are 
of  the  same  color  and  intensity  of  light  ;  in  oth- 
ers the  brightest  and  whitest  of  the  stars  are  at 
the  outside  of  the  group  ;  in  still  more  cases  the 
different  sorts  of  stars  as  to  light  are  wholly 
intermingled  as  if  at  random.  The  Pleiades,  as 
shown  by  the  telescope,  are  an  example  of  this 
last  class.  And  the  examples  are  comparatively 
very  few  of  systems  whose  central  glory  steadily 
fades  and  dies  away  toward  the  suburbs  —  like 
almost  every  ancient  city,  or  like  that  famous 
ancient  empire  which  had  Augustan  Rome  at 
its  center  and  the  rude  Britons  and  Goths  and 
Arabs  at  its  circumference.  Instead  of  finding 
here  and  there  a  case  of  this  sort,  or  here  and 
there  a  considerable  number  of  cases,  we  ought 
to  find  absolutely  no  others.  The  Nebular  Hy- 
pothesis being  witness. 

In  regard  to  the  size  of  the  members  of  a  sys- 
tem and  the  distance  between  them  —  these 
ought  to  increase  steadily  from  the  center  out- 
ward.    For,  in    the    shrinkage    of  the  mist,   the 


254  EIGHTH  LECTURE. 

centrifugal  force  must  increase  faster  than  the 
radius  diminishes  ;  so  that,  the  nearer  the  center, 
the  more  frequently  rings  would  be  thrown  off 
and  orbs  formed.  Also,  the  nearer  the  center, 
the  smaller  would  the  ring  be,  both  in  diameter 
and  in  breadth  of  actual  matter ;  and  so  the  less 
matter  would  it  contain  —  notwithstanding  the 
increase  of  density  toward  the  center,  under  the 
influence  of  gravity.  In  fine,  it  would  be  in  all 
systems  as  it  tends  to  be  in  our  own  —  the  larger 
bodies  and  intervals  at  the  greater  distances  from 
the  center.  As  is  the  way  of  suburbs,  the  remot- 
est structures  would  be  the  furthest  apart :  as  is 
not  the  way  of  suburbs,  the  remotest  structures 
would  be  the  largest  of  all.  The  elder  children 
of  the  family  would  be  the  largest  and  most  in- 
dependent—  as  in  a  natural  scheme  they  ought 
to  be.  The  stoutest  soldiers  would  guard  the 
perilous  frontiers  —  as  in  a  natural  scheme  they 
ought  to  do.  In  the  case  of  very  large  groups 
and  clusters,  the  outpost  worlds  and  intervals 
would  be  enormous  compared  with  the  rest. 
Such  a  cluster  as  the  Milky  Way,  that  City  of 
magnificent  distances  and  sizes,  ought  to  show 
on  its  frontiers  distances  and  sizes  incomparably 
most  magnificent  of  all.     The  very  giants  of  the 


WITHOUT  CERTAIN  GRADUATIONS.  255 

system  should  be  there.  Tellus,  Typhon,  Encel- 
adus  —  the  very  Olympians  are  afraid  and  fly  to 
Egypt.  And  each  giant  mounts  guard  over  a 
district  proportioned  in  extent  to  his  own  sublime 
stature. 

How  different  all  this  is  from  our  actual  Astron- 
omy, every  observer  of  the  heavens  knows.  Per- 
haps, one  might,  with  much  pains,  hunt  up  a  few 
stellar  systems  which  make  a  show  of  conforming 
to  these  views.  But  they  are  very  few.  Most,  to 
say  the  least,  of  the  physically  connected  multiple 
stars  and  scattered  groups  are  plainly  of  quite  an- 
other stamp.  They  have  no  such  graduation  as 
the  hypothesis  requires.  By  far  the  greater  part 
have  no  graduation  at  all  :  their  various  sizes  and 
intervals  are  scattered  about  as  by  some  celestial 
lottery.  And,  in  some  -cases,  we  find  exactly  the 
opposite  of  what  we  are  taught  to  expect.  There 
is  a  general  tenor  of  orderly  arrangement ;  but  in- 
stead of  proceeding  outward  from  the  less  to  the 
greater,  it  proceeds  from  the  greater  to  the  less. 
The  smallest  worlds  and  intervals  are  at  the  out- 
side of  the  system.  And  one  of  the  most  striking 
examples  of  this  would  seem  to  be  given  by  that 
very  Milky  Way  which,  on  account  of  its  huge- 
ness, should  be  among  the  very  last  systems  to 


256  EIGHTH  LECTURE. 

give  it.  Sir  John  Herschel  was  strongly  drawn, 
by  his  extended  observations  within  our  cluster, 
to  the  opinion  that  the  stars  in  its  outer  parts  are 
generally  really  smaller  and  more  densely  placed 
than  the  others. 

4.  The  stars  of  the  same  system  are  often  in  dif- 
ferent planes,  while  they  are  not  known  to  be  in  the 
same  plane  in  a  single  insta?ice. 

I  have  already  called  your  attention  to  the  fact 
that  the  bodies  of  our  Solar  System  move  in  dif- 
ferent planes.  A  similar  fact  is  written  quite  as 
plainly,  and  far  more  strikingly,  on  some  of  those 
larger  systems  of  which  I  am  now  speaking.  On 
taking  the  inclination  of  the  visual  ray  to  the 
orbits  of  the  double  stars  —  all  of  which  belong 
to  our  Milky  Way  system  —  we  find  the  angle 
exceedingly  various.  On  criticising  the  relative 
motions  in  some  multiple  stars  and  other  small 
groups,  we  find  them  explainable  only  on  the  sup- 
position that  the  orbits  of  the  same  sub-system,  as 
well  as  of  different  sub-systems,  in  our  cluster,  are 
largely  inclined  to  each  other.  The  general  tele- 
scopic aspect  of  some  still  larger  systems  tells  the 
same  story  of  them  ;  for,  they  are  so  densely 
crowded  toward  the  center,  and  are  otherwise  so 
characterized,  as  to  force  on  us  the  idea  of  stars 


VARIOUS  PLANES.  2$ 7 

arranged  in  globular  or  other  solid  forms.  The 
great  clusters  in  Hercules  and  Libra,  and  that 
known  as  30  Doradus,  may  be  taken  as  examples. 
Of  course,  in  a  globular  cluster  the  orbits  run 
through  the  whole  gamut  of  inclinations.  They 
stand  out  from  each  other  like  the  spokes  of  a 
wheel,  or  rather  like  the  miscellany  of  great  cir- 
cles forming  a  skeleton  celestial  sphere  :  they 
bristle  away  from  each  other  as  if  charged  with 
electric  repulsions  :  one  half  get  as  far  away  from 
the  other  half  as  they  possibly  can.  No  frisky, 
impetuous  comets  can  abhor  each  other  more  cor- 
dially, cut  each  other  more  unkindly,  object  to 
their  ecliptic  more  strongly,  than  do  hosts  of  staid 
and  massive  suns  bound  up  together  in  the  various 
families,  clans,  and  celestial  nations  of  the  same 
globular  cluster. 

This,  on  the  one  hand.  On  the  other,  we  do 
not  as  yet  know  a  single  stellar  system  whose 
orbits  lie  exactly  in  the  same  plane.  How  is  this 
reconcilable  with  the  notion  that  the  worlds  in 
each  system  have  sprung  from  one  central  rota- 
tion ?  Our  Milky  Way  is  a  system  by  itself.  If 
all  its  stars  were  in  one  plane  with  ourselves  we 
should  see  them  all  projected  on  a  great  circle  of 
the  sphere  in  one  narrow  but  most  brilliant  band 
17 


258  EIGHTH  LECTURE. 

of  light.  Such  a  cestus,  fairer  and  more  marvel- 
ous than  poets  ever  gave  to  Venus,  we  do  not  see. 
On  the  contrary,  we  see  the  stars  of  our  cluster 
scattered  all  over  the  sky,  and  so  know  that  they 
occupy  innumerable  and  widely  different  planes. 
According  to  the  theory,  they  all  ought  to  be 
found  in  the  ecliptic,  and  make  a  visible  ecliptic, 
bright  as  the  electric  arc,  across  the  heavens. 
Nay,  all  clusters  and  nebulae  whatsoever  ought  to 
lie  on  the  same  circle  :  for,  they  must  all  be  sup- 
posed to  have  sprung  from  one  monster  fire  mist 
whose  one  rotation  was  along  the  ecliptic.  But,  in 
fact,  there  are  immense  nebular  accumulations  at 
the  very  poles  of  the  Milky  Way.  Those  arctics 
of  Nature  seem  bedded  in  eternal  snows.  They 
are  twin  breakers  around  which  the  celestial  seas 
are  always  breaking  in  clouds  of  silver  foam. 

5.  The  stellar  systems,  as  far  as  examined,  show 
very  eccentric  orbits. 

I  have  already  given  reasons  for  claiming  that 
worlds  formed  in  the  manner  of  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis  must  revolve  in  circles. 

But  the  orbits  of  the  double  stars  which  have 
been  completely  made  out,  amounting  to  about  a 
score,  are  very  like  those  of  comets.  In  two 
cases,  those  of  Alpha  Centauri  and  Gamma  Vir- 


E C CENTRIC  ORBITS.  259 

ginis,  the  orbit  is  nearly  five  times  longer  than  it 
is  broad  ;  and  generally  the  length  exceeds  the 
breadth  by  more  than  a  quarter  of  itself.  The  ex- 
perience of  astronomers  in  this  direction  is  so  uni- 
form, that  now,  whenever  one  sets  himself  to  find 
the  elements  of  a  new  sun-orbit,  he  expects,  if 
successful,  to  see  it  turn  out  very  eccentric,  and 
would  not  be  at  all  surprised  to  find  it  as  sharp 
and  oval  as  the  comet  of  Halley  traverses  —  that 
is  to  say,  almost  a  celestial  needle,  with  the  sun 
for  its  eye,  piercing  the  night.  —  About  seven 
hundred  double  stars  have  shown  more  or  less 
orbital  motion.  Such  has  been  the  character  of 
the  arcs  thus  far  described  that  it  can  hardly  be 
doubted  that,  should  time  and  pains  enable  us  to 
extend  and  close  up  all  these  arcs  into  orbits,  we 
will  find  very  few  of  them  to  be  accurate  circles. 
Circular  rings  are  as  scarce  in  the  heavens  as 
elliptical  rings  are  in  our  boxes  of  jewelry. 

6.  Many  a  stellar  system  has  not  the  same  chem- 
ical constitution  throughout. 

We  have  found  a  like  fact  nearer  home.  Our 
own  solar  group  is  far  from  being  a  unit  in  con- 
stitution. Especially,  when  we  compare  the 
earth  with  the  sun,  and  both  with  the  comets, 
are  we  struck  with  the  difference  in   this  respect. 


260  EIGHTH  LECTURE. 

A  difference  not  compatible  with  the  idea  that 
sun  and  planets  and  comets  are  but  different 
specimens  of  the  same  well-mixed  and  homoge- 
neous fire  mist.  So  I  have  already  attempted  to 
show. 

But  now  let  us  turn  to  those  far  off  systems 
which,  until  lately,  seemed  far  enough  beyond  the 
reach  of  our  chemical  critics.  Of  what  are  they 
made  ?  Are  the  members  of  the  same  system 
always  made  of  the  same  materials,  in  the  same 
general  proportions  ?  We  are  not  without  an 
answer  that  can  be  trusted.  Many  double  and 
multiple  stars  are  found  composed,  each  of  differ- 
ently colored  members,  whose  difference  of  color 
can  hardly  be  supposed  due  to  contrast,  or  to 
different  stages  of  combustion.  Besides,  when 
probed  by  the  spectroscope,  these  variously 
colored  stars  give  forth  various  spectra  —  show- 
ing that  they  have  different  chemical  constitutions. 
Indeed,  stars  of  the  same  system  seldom  give 
precisely  similar  spectra :  while  in  some  cases  the 
difference  is  very  great  and  radical.  Thus,  in 
our  cluster,  Betelgeuse  and  Beta  Pegasi  and  Alpha 
Orionis  send  out  no  lines  whatever  of  hydrogen, 
an  element  found  so  largely  in  our  sun.  And  our 
sun  gives  no  sign  of  oxygen  or   nitrogen  —  ele- 


DIFFERENT  CHEMISTRIES.  26 1 

ments  found  largely  in  some  other  parts  of  the 
great  stellar  system  to  which  it  belongs.  Sirius 
has  strong  rulings  through  the  violet  which  do 
not  answer  to  any  known  substance  :  and,  on 
being  put  well  through  the  spectral  catechism, 
confesses  to  many  points  of  singularity,  especially 
in  regard  to  the  proportion  of  the  elements  in  its 
great  seething  alembic.  The  lines  of  hydrogen 
are  far  stronger  than  those  which  come  from  our 
sun,  while  the  metallic  lines  are  far  fainter.  If 
these  large  bodies  were  all  parceled  off  from  the 
same  fiercely  boiling  and  thoroughly  mixed  neb- 
ula, they  could  not  show  such  varieties  of  consti- 
tution as  we  are  able  to  detect  by  peering  through 
the  grated  windows  of  their  spectra. 

This  ends  my  list  of  facts  from  the  confessed 
stellar  systems.  Please  set  each  of  them  down 
as  against  the  latest  atheism  —  since  each  is 
against  that  only  scheme  of  naturalism  that  now 
attempts  to  build  the  heavens  without  a  God. 
And  remember  that  the  attacking  force  of  these 
facts  is  measured,  not  by  their  sum,  but  by  their 
product. 

Putting,  then,  our  facts  together  geometrically, 
one  feels  that  if  he  could  only  leave  this  distant 
post  of  observation   from   which  he   yet  sees  so 


262  EIGHTH  LECTURE. 

much,  and,  harnessing  twin  stars  to  some  heavenly 
chariot,  could  ride  freely  in  and  out  among  the 
stellar  universes,  he  would  find  almost  endless  in- 
congruities between  them  and  the  idea  that  their 
elements  came  together  of  themselves,  in  however 
much  of  time,  (call  it  the  brother  of  eternity)  into 
such  a  Glorious  House  —  as  bewildering  in  its 
elaborateness  and  unity  as  it  is  in  its  vastness  — 
as  the  German  poet  saw  with  his  heart  that  wept 
and  trembled. 

"  God  called  up  from  dreams  a  man  into  the 
vestibule  of  heaven,  saying,  '  Come  thou  hither, 
and  see  the  glory  of  my  house.'  And  to  the  serv- 
ants that  stood  around  his  throne  He  said,  '  Take 
him,  and  undress  him  from  his  robes  of  flesh  : 
cleanse  his  vision,  and  put  a  new  breath  into  his 
nostrils  :  only  touch  not  with  any  change  his  hu- 
man heart  —  the  heart  that  weeps  and  trembles.' 
It  was  done  :  and,  with  a  mighty  angel  for  his 
guide,  the  man  stood  ready  for  his  infinite  voyage  ; 
and  from  the  terraces  of  heaven,  without  sound  or 
farewell,  at  once  they  wheeled  away  into  endless 
space.  Sometimes  with  the  solemn  flight  of  angel 
wing  they  fled  through  Zaarrahs  of  darkness, 
through  wildernesses  of  death,  that  divided  the 
worlds  of  life  ;  sometimes  they  swept  over  front- 


A    DREAM.  263 

iers,  that  were  quickening  under  prophetic  mo- 
tions from  God.  Then,  from  a  distance  that  is 
counted  only  in  heaven,  light  dawned  for  a  time 
through  a  sleepy  film  ;  by  unutterable  pace  the 
light  swept  to  them,  they  by  unutterable  pace  to 
the  light.  In  a  moment  the  rushing  of  planets 
was  upon  them  :  in  a  moment  the  blazing  of  suns 
was  around  them. 

"  Then  came  eternities  of  twilight,  that  revealed, 
but  were  not  revealed.  On  the  right  hand  and  on 
the  left  towered  mighty  constellations,  that  by 
self-repetitions  and  answers  from  afar,  that  by 
counter-positions  built  up  triumphal  gates,  whose 
architraves,  whose  archways  —  horizontal,  up- 
right —  rested,  rose  —  at  altitude  by  spans  — 
that  seemed  ghostly  from  infinitude.  Without 
measure  were  the  architraves,  past  number  were 
the  archways,  beyond  memory  the  gates.  Within 
were  stairs  that  scaled  the  eternities  below  ;  above 
was  below  —  below  was  above,  to  the  man  stripped 
of  gravitating  body :  depth  was  swallowed  up  in 
hight  insurmountable,  hight  was  swallowed  up 
in  depth  unfathomable.  Suddenly,  as  thus  they 
rode  from  infinite  to  infinite,  suddenly,  as  thus 
they  tilted  over  abysmal  worlds,  a  mighty  cry 
arose — that  systems  more  mysterious,  that  worlds 


264  EIGHTH  LECTURE. 

more  billowy — other,  hights  and  other  depths  — 
were  coming,  were  nearing,  were  at  hand. 

"  Then  the  man  sighed,  and  stopped,  shuddered, 
and  wept.  His  overladened  heart  uttered  itself 
in  tears  ;  and  he  said  — '  Angel,  I  will  go  no  far- 
ther. For  the  spirit  of  man  acheth  with  this  in- 
finity. Insufferable  is  the  glory  of  God.  Let  me 
lie  down  in  the  grave  and  hide  me  from  the  per- 
secution of  the  infinite  ;  for  end,  I  see,  there  is 
none.'  And  from  all  the  listening  stars  that  shone 
around  issued  a  choral  voice,  '  The  man  speaks 
truly  :  end  there  is  none,  that  ever  yet  we  heard 
of.'  '  End  is  there  none  ? '  the  angel  solemnly 
demanded  :  '  Is  there  indeed  no  end  ?  —  and  is 
this  the  sorrow  that  kills  you  ? '  But  no  voice  an- 
swered, that  he  might  answer  himself.  Then  the 
angel  threw  up  his  glorious  hands  to  the  heaven 
of  heavens,  saying,  '  End  is  there  none  to  the  uni- 
verse of  God.     Lo  !  also  there  is  no  beginning.'  " 


IX. 

CONFLICT    WITH     NEBULAR 

ASTRONOMY. 

Xao?  rji\  kolI  vvc,  epefios  tc  }xi\av  7rpa>ror,  kol  Tdprapo^ 
evpvs.  Trj  d\  ov8'  d^p,  ovR  ovpavbs  r)V  ipefiovs  8'  iv  a.7ret- 
pocrt  koAttois  tlktcl  7rp(x)Ti<TTOV  VTTrjvejjuov  vv£  r;  /xeAavo7TT€/30S 
wov.  —  Aristophanes. 

Quis  credat  tantas  operum  sine  numine  moles, 
Ex  minimis  ccecoque  creatum  foedere  mundum  ? 

Manilius. 


IX.  Conflict  with  Nebular  Astronomy. 


NEBULAE 


267 


2.  EXAMINED   BY   SPECTROSCOPE 269 

3.  SHOWN   TO    BE    FIRE    MISTS? 2?0 

4.  SHOWN   NOT  TO    BE 2?3 

5.  WHAT   IF   THEY   ARE? 2SS 

6.  THE   WHOLE   FIELD 2gi 

7.  A   VOYAGE 297 

8.  THE   WHENCE  AND   THE   WHITHER     .         .  ,00 


NINTH    LECTURE. 


CONFLICT   WITH    NEBULAR   ASTRONOMY. 

TN  searching  for  facts  bearing  on  the  Nebular 
-1-  Hypothesis,  let  us  now  widen  our  already  wide 
horizon  so  as  to  take  in  those  celestial  clouds  and 
cloudlets,  which,  under  the  name  of  nebulae,  have 
not  yet  been  separated  by  the  telescope  into  or- 
dinary stars,  but  which  many  of  us  have  been  wont 
to  regard  as  only  remoter  star-crowds  converted 
into  a  silver  haze  by  extreme  distance  from  our 
post  of  observation. 

The  nebulae  —  what  are  they  ?  They  seem  like 
silver  smokes  ;  beds  of  eider-down  ;  faint  celestial 
frosts  ;  milky  ways  ;  snowy  plumes  shorn  from  the 
crests  of  heavenly  warriors  ;  delicate  white  foams 
such  as  the  goddess  Venus  was  developed  from, 
according  to  the  ancient  fable,  and  such  as  the 
planet  Venus  was  developed  from,  according  to  the 
modern  fable.     But  what  are  they  really  ? 

The  chief  support  of  the  Nebular  Hypothesis,  in 


268  NINTH  LECTURE. 

these  days,  lies  in  the  supposed  evidence  that  the 
nebulae,  in  part  at  least,  are  specimens  of  such 
fire  mists  as  would  be  needed  for  the  natural  con- 
struction of  worlds.  If,  on  examination,  it  shall 
appear,  not  only  that  there  is  no  such  evidence, 
but  that  there  is  positive  evidence  to  the  contrary, 
the  main  support  of  the  Nebular  Scheme  will  be 
set  aside  in  the  fullest  manner. 

For  the  sake  of  clearness,  I  will  here  lay  down 
three  propositions  to  be  examined  successively  in 
the  light  of  the  more  recent  Astronomy. 

1 .  TJia-e  is  no  positive  evidence  that  any  of  the 
neb  idee  are  fire  mists. 

2.  There  is  positive  evidence  to  the  contrary. 

3.  Granting  that  some  nebula  are  fire  mists,  it 
is  plain  that  they  are  not  such  fire  mists  as  the 
Nebular  Hypothesis  demands. 

Let  us  see  how  far  these  statements  are  borne 
out  by  facts  :  and,  first,  the  statement  that  there  is 
no  positive  evidence  that  any  of  the  nebulae  are 
fire  mists. 

The  spectroscope  is  found  to  give  for  some  of 
the  nebulae  those  bright-lined  spectra  generally 
given  by  gases  in  a  state  of  incandescence. 
Hence  it  is  concluded  that  these  nebulae  are  fire 
mists.     I  think  without  sufficient  reason.     To  lay 


EXAMINED  BY  SPECTROSCOPE.  269 

no  stress  on  such  perplexing  facts  as  that  the  solid 
erbium  gives  the  gaseous  spectrum,  that  the  spec- 
trum of  a  substance  is  often  greatly  altered  by 
chemical  combinations  and  sometimes  totally  sup- 
pressed, that  gases  (hydrogen  for  example)  under 
high  pressure  and  temperature  sometimes  give 
the  continuous  spectra  of  solids  —  the  most  these 
facts  show  is  that  certain  nebulae  are,  to  some  ex- 
tent, gaseous  in  composition.  They  by  no  means 
show  that  each  nebula  is  one  continuous  fire 
mist  —  any  more  than  the  continuous  spectra 
found  belonging  to  certain  other  nebulae,  as  that 
in  Andromeda,  show  that  they  are  so  many  con- 
tinuous solids.  This  no  one  supposes.  It  only  is 
supposed  that  such  nebulae  consist  of  distinct  stars 
largely  solid.  So  the  nebulae  with  the  bright 
bands  may  as  reasonably  be  thought  to  consist  of 
distinct  stars  largely  gaseous.  Indeed,  some  well- 
known  separate  stars,  and  clusters  of  stars,  are 
found  to  give  the  bright-lined  spectrum  —  for  ex- 
ample, three  stars  in  Cygnus,  the  Dumb  Bell 
Nebula  in  Vulpecula,  the  Crab  Nebula  in  Taurus, 
the  Ring  Nebula  in  Lyra,  as  well  as  the  irregular 
Nebula  in  Orion  ;  each  of  which  has  been  largely 
resolved  into  stars,  and  shows  throughout  the 
characteristics    of  resolvability  strongly   marked. 


270  NINTH  LECTURE. 

There  seems  to  be  no  way  of  keeping  the  peace 
between  the  telescope  and  the  spectroscope,  in 
regard  to  such  nebulas,  except  by  allowing  them 
to  be  clusters  of  at  least  largely  gaseous  stars. 

But  this  is  not  all.  A  nebula  with  the  gaseous 
spectrum  may  even  consist  of  discrete  stars  very 
much  like  our  sun  —  assuming,  what  is  still  in 
dispute,  that  our  sun  is  partly  gaseous  and  partly 
solid.  For,  if  a  nebula  is  made  up  of  separate 
suns,  each  of  which  has  a  solid  nucleus  sur- 
rounded by  an  incandescent  atmosphere  so  deep 
and  dense  and  various  in  its  elements  as  to  vir- 
tually suppress  the  light  from  the  interior  solid, 
then  a  gaseous  spectrum  would  be  given  if  there 
were  still  another  incandescent  atmosphere  out- 
side of  each  orb.  Thus,  suppose  an  incandescent 
solid.  Envelop  it  in  glowing  gas  consisting  of 
only  one  element  and  you  will  have  the  spectrum 
crossed  by  certain  dark  lines.  Every  new  ele- 
ment added  to  that  atmosphere  in  sufficient  quan- 
tity would  add  to  the  number  of  such  lines.  Of 
course,  you  can  conceive  of  the  number  becoming 
so  great  as  to  make  the  spectrum  very  faint,  and 
even  null.  If  now  there  were  placed  around  that 
glowing  atmosphere  still  another,  we  should  get 
from  the  whole  a  gaseous  spectrum. 


SHOWN  TO  BE  FIRE  MISTS?  27 1 

And  so  we  should  if  each  sun  has  a  solid 
nucleus  very  much  less  bright  to  us  than  its  gas- 
eous envelope  —  or,  if  the  two  are  separated  by  a 
dense  non-conducting  stratum  of  some  sort,  such 
as  some  still  suppose  may  protect  and  make  hab- 
itable the  body  of  our  sun.  If  a  calcium  light  at 
its  fiercest  is  placed  between  the  eye  and  the  sun, 
it  appears  as  a  black  spot  on  the  disc  from  the 
effect  of  contrast.  So  when  the  bright  lines 
which  make  the  gaseous  spectrum  are  thrown 
across  a  much  brighter  continuous  spectrum  they 
appear  as  dark  lines  —  if  across  one  of  about  the 
same  brightness  they  do  not  appear  at  all  ;  noth- 
ing but  the  continuous  spectrum  is  seen.  But  if 
they  are  thrown  across  a  much  dimmer  continu- 
ous spectrum  they  must  still  show  as  bright  lines, 
and  may  make  the  whole  underlying  spectrum 
very  faint  and  even  invisible.  So  the  most  we 
are  at  liberty  to  conclude  from  the  fact  that  a 
nebula  gives  the  gaseous  spectrum  is  that  what- 
ever solid  matter  belongs  to  it  is  somewhat  less 
bright  than  its  envelope  to  the  eye.  This  does 
not  necessarily  mean  that  it  is  less  heated,  or 
even  intrinsically  less  luminous.  It  may  mean 
only  that  it  is  chiefly  more  distant  from  us  —  say 
in  the  orbs  at  the  heart  of  the  nebula  —  and  that 


272  NINTH  LECTURE. 

much  light  is  lost  in  traversing  the  radius  of  the 
nebula. 

But,  really,  it  is  only  a  part  of  the  truth  to  say 
that  some  of  the  nebula  give  the  gaseous  spec- 
trum. They  do  give  that,  but  in  many  cases,  to 
say  the  least,  they  also  give  in  the  background  a 
faint  continuous  spectrum,  or  the  suspicion  of  one, 
overpowered  by  the  superior  brightness  of  the 
gaseous  spectrum.  And  the  delicacy  of  this  sort 
of  observation  is  so  extreme,  and  the  course  of 
experience  has  been  such,  that  no  one  has  a  right 
to  say  that  the  continuous  spectrum  does  not 
really  lurk  beneath  every  nebular  spectrum.  Re- 
peatedly, a  nebula  supposed  to  give  only  bright 
bands  has,  on  more  careful  scrutiny,  or  use  of 
superior  instruments,  been  found  giving  a  faint 
satellite  spectrum  with  its  continuous  ribbon. 
The  great  nebula  in  Orion  is  a  striking  example. 
Till  recently  this  object  was  habitually  pronounced 
with  great  confidence  to  be,  throughout,  purely 
gaseous  in  its  message  to  us  ;  but  at  last  we  have 
detected  a  confused  tartan  hiding  beneath  the 
green  and  blue  bars  of  nitrogen  and  hydrogen. 

So  it  is  very  far  from  being  clear  on  spectro- 
scopic grounds  that  any  nebula  is  mere  fire  mist. 
And  the  intrinsic  difficulties  in  the  way  of  accept- 


SHO  WN  NO  T  TO  BE.  273 

ing  such  a  view  are  by  no  means  small.  This 
brings  me  to  the  second  proposition  which  we  set 
out  to  examine,  namely,  There  is  positive  evidence 
to  the  contrary. 

First,  It  is  hard  to  understand  how  a  mere  fire 
mist,  of  the  utmost  tenuity,  could  be  seen  at  sucli 
distances  from  us  as  most  of  the  nebula?  evidently 
are. 

They  have  no  sensible  parallax.  But  if  any  star, 
or  cluster  of  stars,  at  the  point  of  sensible  parallax, 
were  diffused  through  millions  of  times  its  present 
space  it  would  become  totally  invisible  to  the  most 
powerful  telescopes  —  unless  its  intrinsic  bright- 
ness were  at  the  same  time  millions  of  times  in- 
creased. But  the  stellar  brightness,  if  we  may 
judge  from  that  of  our  sun,  is  already  intrinsically 
intenser  than  that  of  the  most  powerful  electricity 
known  to  us.  Whoever  assumes  a  gaseous  light 
millions  of  times  brighter  than  even  this,  travels 
away  infinitely  from  the  region  of  experience  ;  a 
thing  which  naturalism  is  not  allowed  to  do. 
Never,  among  the  host  of  incandescent  gases 
which  under  the  name  of  comets  steam  through 
our  planetary  seas,  have  we  seen  a  specimen  of 
such  ineffable  brightness,  or  indeed  of  any  not 
vastly  inferior  to  that  of  our  sun. 


274  NINTH  LECTURE. 

But  this  is  not  all.  Experiment  also  has  a  word 
to  say.  It  is  found  that  a  high  temperature  gives 
to  nitrogen  a  spectrum  of  many  rich  bands.  As 
we  reduce  the  heat  the  number  of  bands  is  re- 
duced. At  last,  when  incandescence  is  feeblest, 
but  a  single  member  of  the  gay  specterhood  is 
left.  Now  it  is  this  member  clad  in  Kendal  green, 
and  this  alone  of  all  those  in  the  livery  of  nitrogen, 
that  appears  in  the  spectra  of  all  the  supposed 
fire  mists.  The  inference  is  that  their  tempera- 
ture is  very  low.  Are  such  bodies  hot  and  bright 
enough  to  report  themselves  to  our  sight  from 
almost  the  outskirts  of  Nature  ? 

Suppose  the  most  brilliant  comet  on  record 
carried  away  as  far  as  the  great  nebula  in  Orion, 
and  then  pieced  out  with  cometary  matter  of 
equal  brightness  till  as  large  as  that  nebula, 
who  supposes  it  could  then  be  seen,  even  in  that 
Light-Compeller,  the  great  Rossian  speculum  ? 
And  yet  the  Orion-Nebula  is  just  visible  to  the 
naked  eye. 

One  can  understand  how  gases  under  vast  press- 
ure, as  at  the  surface  of  sun  or  star,  can  be  about 
equal  to  solids  in  brightness  :  but  it  is  only  the 
central  part  of  a  fire  mist  which  can  give  gases  in 
such  extreme  density. 


SHOWN  NOT  TO  BE.  275 

Second,  It  is  Jiard  to  understand  how  mere  fire 
mists  can  have,  or  seem  to  have,  any  other  perma- 
nent shape  than  the  spheroidal. 

The  spiral  nebulae,  some  forty  thus  far  known, 
firmly  maintain  their  strange  and  exceedingly  va- 
rious general  shapes.  We  do  not  wonder  at  this. 
These  bodies,  giving  continuous  spectra,  are  ad- 
mitted to  consist  of  distinct  solid  orbs  ;  and  we 
can  easily  conceive  that  a  system  of  such  orbs  may 
have  its  motions,  distances,  sizes,  densities,  and 
brightnesses  so  adjusted  as  to  maintain  for  long 
periods  almost  any  apparent  figure.  Indeed,  it 
can  be  shown  that  these  elements  may  be  so  re- 
lated to  each  other  that  almost  any  apparent  shape 
might  be  given  by  what  is  really  a  perfectly  globu- 
lar system  of  worlds.  But  how  can  a  continuous 
vapor  out  in  free  space  maintain  itself  for  ages  in 
any  other  one  shape  than  a  spheroidal  ?  It  were 
to  defy  all  known  laws  of  gravity  and  equilibrium. 
These  laws  which  on  the  earth  strain  all  falling 
fluids  into  globules  —  which  are  supposed  to  have 
rounded  all  the  solid  members  of  our  solar  system, 
all  the  separate  stars,  and  nine  tenths  of  the  nebulae 
—  and  which  gradually  compose  into  spheres  even 
the  most  misshapen  comets  as  they  get  away  from 
the  fiery  repulsions  of  the  sun  —  these  laws  would 


276  NINTH  LECTURE. 

incontinently  compel  any  irregular  aeriform  body, 
placed  all  alone  in  space,  toward  a  spherical  form. 
As  fast  as  the  mountains  would  run  down  to  one 
level  if  suddenly  changed  to  water  ;  nay,  as  fast 
as  the  mountains  of  hydrogen  at  the  sun's  edge 
are  seen  to  disappear  ;  so  fast  would  the  outline  of 
the  most  irregular  fire  mist  tend  to  straighten  it- 
self out  into  an  exact  circle  or  ellipse.  No  forces 
wholly  within  itself  could  sensibly  defeat  this  ten- 
dency. Jets  might  be  thrown  out  from  the  gen- 
eral sphericity  ;  but,  from  the  nature  of  the  case, 
they  would  be  exceedingly  transient  and  shifting, 
as  well  as  small  compared  with  the  diameter  of 
the  whole  nebula.  They  would  also  be  the  thin- 
nest and  least  evident  part  of  the  whole.  And,  at 
such  immense  distance,  they  would  not  appreciably 
break  the  general  roundness  of  the  nebular  figure 
to  the  eye.  Just  as  the  earth's  atmosphere  keeps 
to  its  general  roundness  though  subject  to  violent 
local  heats  and  storms;  just  as  the  sun  shows  a 
round  face  though  it  has  great  centers  of  commo- 
tion and  outburst  ;  just  as  the  planets  and  their 
moons  give  us  circular  discs  though  no  doubt 
ragged  with  mountains,  and  though  —  such  is  the 
hypothesis  —  born  and  nursed  and  settled  in  great 
gaseous  tempests  ;  so  all  gaseous  nebulae,  however 


SHOWN  NOT  TO  BE.  277 

disturbed  from  within,  ought  to  appear  round  to 
us.  But  many  give  no  sign  of  being  disturbed 
from  within.  They  have  a  very  uniform  look. 
We  can  detect  no  nuclei  and  centers  of  violent 
action.  Even  such  nebulae,  as  well  as  others, 
often  appear  under  the  most  irregular  shapes  — 
as  various  as  those  of  the  clouds  —  and  keep  these 
shapes  without  perceptible  change.  The  neigh- 
borhood of  the  Milky  Way  is  rich  in  such  nebulae. 
The  famous  Dumb  Bell  in  Vulpecula  is  as  much 
a  dumb  bell  to-day  as  it  was  at  its  discovery. 

But  some  one  says,  "  The  apparent  figure  of  a 
nebula  is  not  of  course  the  true  one.  By  enlarg- 
ing the  power  of  the  telescope  we  often  greatly 
alter  the  nebular  figure,  by  bringing  into  view 
parts  too  faint  before  to  be  seen.  Thus  the  giant 
Rossian  tube  almost  seemed  to  create  the  Crab 
Nebula  and  the  great  Spiral.  And  who  can  say 
that  the  increase  of  power  might  not  be  carried 
so  far  as  to  reduce  all  the  nebulae  to  roundness  ? 
Suppose  a  globular  fire  mist  with  its  outer  part 
too  faint  to  be  seen,  and  with  very  unequal  den- 
sity and  brightness  at  the  part  where  it  becomes 
visible  —  then  it  would  appear  very  irregular  in 
form.  Why  may  not  all  the  irregular  nebulae  be 
fire  mists  of  this  sort  ?  " 


278  NINTH  LECTURE. 

I  answer  that  at  least  some  of  them  show  traits 
inconsistent  with  this  view.  Some  show  the  same 
outline  whatever  the  telescopic  power  used. 
Others  are  as  sharply  defined  as  a  new  coin. 
Still  others  are  of  uniform  brightness  throughout. 
And  some  have  all  these  traits  permanently  — 
for  example,  the  two  nebulae  appearing,  one  as 
a  spectral  scimitar,  and  the  other  as  the  spectral 
hand  of  Saladin  stretched  out  to  grasp  it.  Such 
nebulae  can  hardly  be  globular.  But  if  they  are, 
it  is  as  much  against  the  law  of  equilibrium  for 
any  part  of  the  interior  of  a  fire  mist  to  remain 
permanently  in  one  irregular  shape  as  it  is  for  the 
whole  mist  to  do  so.  Thus,  whether  we  regard 
the  apparent  outline  of  an  irregular  nebula  as  the 
real  or  not,  its  constancy  is  against  the  hypothesis 
that  it  is  a  fire  mist. 

It  is  worthy  of  note  that  increasing  the  power 
of  a  telescope  is  apt  to  increase  the  irregularity 
of  a  nebular  outline.  Thus  it  has  proved  in  the 
case  of  the  annular  and  elliptical  nebulae  —  and 
thus  it  has  memorably  proved  in  the  case  of  the 
most  striking  Whirlpool  Nebula,  which  in  a  com- 
mon telescope  appears  as  two  globular  mists,  but 
at  Parsonstown  blazes  out  into  an  elaborate  and 
most  magnificent  spiral  maelstrom  of  light. 


SHOWN  NOT   TO  BE.  279 

Third,  It  is  hard  to  understand  how  mere  fire 
mists  can  retain  for  long  periods  such  an  internal 
configuration  as  some  of  the  gaseous  nebula?,  so 
called,  show. 

Here  are  several  annular  nebulae  giving  the 
gaseous  spectra.  Such  rings  once  formed  would 
be  stable  if  they  should  revolve  at  such  a  rate  as 
to  make  the  centrifugal  force  equal  to  the  centrip- 
etal. But  how  could  such  rings  ever  get  formed  ? 
How  could  the  mere  revolution  of  a  continuous 
gas  empty  its  central  region  entirely  of  matter  ? 

Here  are  certain  irregular  nebulae  giving  gaseous 
spectra.  Within  them  we  find  large  vacancies  ; 
often  very  sharply  defined,  and  irregular  in  outline, 
and  surrounded  by  a  very  equable  luminousness. 
How  such  vacancies  can  occur  in  a  fire  mist  at 
all  —  especially,  how  they  can  maintain  their  size 
and  shape  and  place  unchanged  to  the  eye  in  all 
respects  from  generation  to  generation  is  not 
easily  made  out.  It  is  conceivable  that  a  mass  of 
distinct  moving  stars  may  show  such  aspects  ;  be- 
cause it  is  conceivable  that  such  a  mass  may  re- 
main stable  for  long  periods  in  almost  any  form. 
Not  so  with  a  fire  mist  of  amazing  mobility,  in  the 
most  unsettled  stage  of  its  history. 

Here  is  a  nebula,  pronounced   gaseous  by  the 


280  NINTH  LECTURE. 

spectroscope,  which  has  a  ridged  and  mottled  face, 
or  a  nucleus  at  its  very  edge,  or  several  nuclei  re- 
mote from  a  center  which  shows  no  sign  of  special 
condensation  —  these  features  remaining  without 
perceptible  change  ever  since- that  distant  time 
when  they  were  first  observed.  Such  fixity  in  the 
midst  of  a  raging  and  billowy  sea  of  vapor  —  to 
say  nothing  of  the  difficulty  of  reconciling  such  a 
disposition  of  nuclei  with  the  fundamental  con- 
ception of  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  and  the  laws 
of  equilibrium  —  seems  incredible. 

Fourth,  It  is  hard  to  understand  how  mere  fire 
mists  can  alter  tJieir  size  and  brigJitness  so  slowly, 
if  at  all,  as  the  gaseous  nebula  are  seen  to  do. 

Great  and  sudden  changes  have  been  reported 
in  the  nebula  about  Eta  Argus.  That  in  the  sword 
of  Orion  has  been  suspected  of  changing  in  both 
place  and  form.  Several  other  nebulae,  it  is 
thought,  have  varied  in  light  and  even  dis- 
appeared. But  there  can  be  no  doubt  whatever 
that  there  are  many  nebulae,  pronounced  gaseous, 
in  which  the  most  careful  observation,  continued 
for  many  years,  has  failed  to  detect  any  change 
in  main  features  ;  especially  a  steady  loss  of  light 
and  size.  They  are  stereotyped.  They  stand  to- 
day as  they  stood  in  the  telescope  of  the  elder 


SHOWN  NOT  TO  BE.  28 1 

Herschel,  and  of  Messier,  and  of  Huyghens  :  the 
Milky  Way,  with  all  its  smoky  spurs  of  gaseous 
autograph,  we  have  reason  to  believe,  appears  to 
our  eyes  as  it  did  to  the  eyes  of  Hipparchus  and 
Ptolemy. 

Now  this,  while  easy  of  explanation  on  the  sup- 
position that  these  nebulae  consist  of  discrete  stars, 
is  very  hard  of  explanation  on  the  supposition  that 
they  are  mere  fire  mists.  There  is  no  body  with 
which  we  are  acquainted,  in  all  our  dealings  with 
heated  bodies  on  the  earth,  but  will,  if  left  to  it- 
self, cool  down  to  the  general  temperature  of  sur- 
rounding space  in  a  few  hours,  at  furthest.  In  the 
case  of  aeriform  bodies  the  cooling  is  particularly 
rapid  —  especially  when  their  temperature  is  very 
high  and  that  of  surrounding  space  very  low.  It 
means  much  —  that  ancient  saying  from  a  book 
whose  very  poetry  is  sometimes  science,  They 
shall  vanish  away  like  smoke.  The  glowing  gases 
of  our  laboratories  disappear  like  a  flash  at  the 
touch  of  the  winter  air.  Incandescent  comets 
totally  pass  from  observation  at  a  very  small  re- 
move from  the  sun.  Now,  each  fire  mist  is  sup- 
posed to  be  at  a  terrible  heat,  and  the  immediately 
surrounding  region  is  known  to  be  terribly  cold. 
Such  a  mighty  hunger  and  such  a  congenial  and 


282  NINTH  LECTURE. 

convenient  repast  could  not  be  kept  apart.  Space 
at — 1320  Fahrenheit,  would  drink  off  the  heat  of 
such  a  gaseous  body  (with  its  enormous  faculty  of 
transmission  and  convection)  at  a  fearful  rate  — 
as  no  Sahara  ever  could  drink  water  —  especially 
at  the  earlier  stages  of  the  mist,  especially  at  its 
outside,  especially  from  detached  wisps  and 
streams  and  protuberant  equator,  especially  from 
such  protuberant  equator  when  become  very  flat 
and  separated  from  the  main  body  as  a  ring. 
Such  rings  and  wisps  are  admirably  fitted  for 
cooling.  Heat  would  flow  off  from  them  with 
miraculous  fluency.  They  would  empty  them- 
selves into  the  void  with  unspeakable  precipita- 
tion. Condensation  and  loss  of  light  would  pro- 
ceed equally  fast.  The  aspect  of  the  nebula  to  us 
ought  to  change  almost  daily.  In  the  course  of  a 
few  weeks  or  months,  at  the  most,  we  ought  to 
see  its  most  exposed  parts  ripen  swiftly  toward 
rings,  planets,  satellites.  And  yet  even  the  annu- 
lar nebulae,  and  those  whose  outline  and  internal 
structure  are  of  the  most  broken  character,  for  ex- 
ample 17  Messier,  show  no  change  whatever  in 
size  or  light  as  great  periods  elapse. 

If  one  says  that  conduction  of  heat  in  a  gas  is 
very  feeble,  and  that  this  would  keep  up  the  heat 


SHOWN  NOT  TO  BE.  283 

of  the  interior,  I  answer  that  this  would  make  the 
cooling  of  the  outside  of  the  fire  mist  all  the  more 
rapid. 

If  one  says  that  the  same  reasoning  would  re- 
quire the  sun  and  stars,  which  are  known  to  be 
fire  balls  at  least  partly  gaseous,  to  change  per- 
ceptibly in  size,  brightness,  and  structural  ap- 
pearance within  short  periods,  whereas  no  such 
changes  are  observed  —  I  answer  that  these  bodies 
are  so  enormously  inferior  to  the  supposed  fire 
mists  in  tenuity,  mobility,  amount  of  exposed  sur- 
face, as  well  as  in  the  violence  and  disorder  of  in- 
ternal forces,  that  the  changes  within  a  given 
time  in  size  and  brightness  and  structural  aspect 
ought  to  be  enormously  inferior  also.  Loss  of 
heat  in  a  given  time  would  be  less,  and  a  given 
loss  of  heat  would  produce  less  effect  on  the 
volume  and  brilliancy  of  such  a  body  as  the  sun 
than  it  would  in  the  case  of  its  less  dense  and 
more  heated  corresponding  fire  mist.  That  fiery 
Cloud  —  glowing  with  a  heat  beyond  all  imagina- 
tion, and  assailed  on  all  sides  by  millions  of  huge, 
insatiable  Siberian  mouths  draining  off  its  fiery 
wine  in  so  many  impetuous  gulf-streams  —  must 
change  almost  like  the  clouds  in  our  fickle  terres- 
trial sky. 


284  NINTH  LECTURE. 

Fifth,  It  is  hard  to  understand  how  mere  fire 
mists  can  be  sharply  defined  and  show  uniform 
brightness  throughout. 

When  such  a  mist  has  ceased  to  expand,  its 
outside  cannot  be  very  hot,  because  then  the  heat 
and  gravity  are  in  equilibrium,  while  the  gravity 
must  be  very  small  on  account  of  the  very  great 
distance  from  the  center.  Hence  every  fire 
mist  ought  to  appear  very  dim  at  its  edge  ;  and, 
since  the  heat  and  thickness  continually  increase 
toward  the  center,  ought  to  brighten  gradually  in 
that  direction.  Besides,  the  law  of  gravity  re- 
quires special  condensation  at  the  center.  But,  in 
fact,  many  of  the  gaseous  nebulae,  so  called,  instead 
of  showing  a  thick  creamy  center  and  diluted  mar- 
gin, show  a  sharp  definition  and  a  uniform 
brightness  throughout.  This  is  true  of  most  of 
the  planetary  nebulae  —  all  of  which,  as  far  as  ex- 
amined, give  the  bright  lined  spectrum.  It  is  also 
true  of  very  many  larger  nebulae.  This  is  quite 
consistent  with  the  idea  that  they  consist  of  sepa- 
rate stars  lying  in  a  plane  largely  inclined  to  our 
axis  of  vision  :  but  seems  quite  inconsistent  with 
the  idea  that  they  consist  of  mere  vapor  manipu- 
lated by  the  laws  of  heat  and  gravity. 

In  view  of  such    considerations,  such    and   so 


WHAT  IF   THEY  ARE  ?  285 

many,  it  seems  little  to  say  that  the  evidence  is 
far  from  being  decisive  in  favor  of  the  so-called 
gaseous  nebulas  being  severally  fire  mists.  In- 
deed, the  evidence  seems  decisive  against  it.  But 
granting  that  it  is  not  —  granting  that,  despite  all 
these  urgent  appearances  to  the  contrary,  the 
nebulae  giving  bright  spectral  lines  have  not  been 
misinterpreted  and  are  really  so  many  huge  banks 
of  glowing  vapor  —  what  then  ?  Does  it  follow 
that  we  have  at  last  found  the  raw  material  out  of 
which  mere  Nature  can  manufacture  heavens,  with 
all  their  innumerable  flocks  of  globed  and  shining 
whirlwinds  ? 

This  brings  us  to  the  third  proposition  which 
we  set  out  to  examine,  namely,  Granting  that  some 
nebulae  are  fire  mists,  it  is  plain  that  they  are  not 
such  fire  mists  as  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  de- 
mands. 

This  hypothesis  demands,  not  only  fire  mists, 
but  fire  mists  of  certain  numbers,  sizes,  specimen 
stages,  and  chemical  constitution. 

As  to  number.  Since  all  stars,  groups,  and 
clusters  are  supposed  to  come  from  so  many  fire 
mists  and  to  return  to  the  same,  we  ought  to  find 
as  many  of  the  latter  as  of  the  former.  But  we  do 
not.     Very  far  from  it.     The  nearly  six  thousand 


286  NINTH  LECTURE. 

nebulae  of  all  sorts  known  to  us  are  quite  inappre- 
ciable in  the  presence  of  the  hosts  of  stars  ;  much 
more  the  nebulas  which  retain  an  irresolvable  as- 
pect in  the  Rossian  reflector  (a  very  small  part  of 
those  before  set  down  as  irresolvable)  ;  much  more 
still  those  of  the  unresolved  nebulae  which  give 
the  bright  banded  spectrum.  This  spectrum  is 
found  belonging  to  only  about  one  third  of  the 
nebulae  actually  examined,  even  when  selected 
as  the  most  likely  to  be  gaseous.  It  is  imputed 
in  a  way  of  induction  —  only  a  few  of  each  class 
having  been  carefully  questioned  by  the  spectro- 
scope —  to  the  planetary,  annular,  and  irregu- 
lar nebulae  :  but  we  have  on  our  list  only  thirty- 
four  planetary  nebulae,  four  annular  not  planetary  ; 
and  the  irregular  are  hardly  one  tenth  of  the  whole 
number.  Who  can  suppose  these  few  fire  mists, 
these  mere  gleanings  of  the  heavens,  to  fairly  rep- 
resent the  cradles  and  graves  of  all  the  celestial 
nations  as  they  come  and  go  ?  None  who  listen 
properly  to  the  modern  science  of  probabilities  ; 
for, just  here, that  science  throws  the  whole  Multi- 
plication Table  at  the  Nebular  Hypothesis. 
Doubtless,  for  every  solid  orb  that  is  seen,  we 
ought  to  be  able  to  show  a  nebula  sufficient  to 
make  it. 


WHAT  IF   THEY  ARE?  287 

Then  as  to  size.  The  size  of  the  largest  regu- 
lar nebulae  claimed  to  be  gaseous  is  not  what  it 
ought  to  be,  considering  that  these  represent  the 
great  stellar  groups  and  clusters  of  the  universe. 
They  ought  to  be  as  much  larger  than  these  clus- 
ters as  these  when  resolved  into  gas  would  be 
larger  than  they  now  are  —  that  is,  almost  unspeak- 
ably larger.  But  in  fact  they  are  much  smaller. 
Where  are  the  shapely  and  mighty  fire  mists  that 
might  be  the  parents  of  such  groups  as  the 
Pleiades  ?  Astronomers  have  not  yet  found 
them. 

Another  point.  Among  the  thousands  of  nebulae 
claimed  to  be  fire  mists  —  not  to  say,  among  a 
number  as  great  as  that  of  ripe  stars,  groups,  and 
clusters  —  we  ought  to  find  many  examples  of 
each  of  the  principal  stages  of  world  structure  sup- 
posed in  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  :  among  others, 
many  examples  of  a  nebulous  ring  about  a  central 
nucleus  ;  many  examples  of  such  a  ring  parting 
into  several  unequal  nuclei  ;  many  examples  of 
such  nuclei  drawn  around  the  largest  as  if  about 
to  be  absorbed  (small  stockholders  around  some 
great  one)  ;  many  examples  of  several  riper  nuclei 
outside  of  a  ring  with  a  condensed  center.  Bring- 
ing our  telescopes  to  bear  on  the  sky,  what  do  we 


288  NINTH  LECTURE. 

actually  find  ?  Just  nothing  whatever  that  can 
pass  for  an  example  of  most  of  these  stages  :  and 
it  is  very  doubtful  whether  we  even  find  anything 
that  can  stand  for  an  example  of  the  simplest  ring- 
stage.  The  annular  nebulae  are  often  cited  to  the 
contrary.  But  only  about  half  a  score  of  these 
objects  have  been  found  in  both  hemispheres  ; 
and  most  of  these  few  are  mere  rings  with  dark 
interiors,  and  so  are  not  examples  of  such  ring- 
nebulas  as  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  supposes.  Of 
two  exceptions,  one  ring  is  only  slightly  luminous 
within  and  has  been  quite  resolved  into  stars  : 
while  the  other,  5 1  Messier,  with  a  dense  center, 
is  heavily  split  through  the  greater  part  of  its 
circumference  —  a  fact  hardly  consistent  with  the 
idea  of  a  ring  formed  by  rotation.  Besides,  only 
four  of  the  annular  nebulae  have  as  yet  been  shown 
to  give  the  gaseous  spectrum  :  further  observation 
may  show,  as  has  been  done  in  the  case  of  the 
spiral  nebulae,  that  part  give  the  continuous  spec- 
trum. 

So  the  ring-stage  of  the  fire  mist  is  very  slen- 
derly, if  at  all,  represented  in  the  actual  sky.  And 
yet  this  is  the  leading  stage  in  the  Nebular  Scheme. 
Indeed,  it  mixes  itself  up  with  nearly  all  the  other 
stages.     We  ought  to  see  the  ring,  more  or  less 


WHAT  IF  THEY  ARE?  289 

advanced,  in  most  examples  of  gaseous  nebulae  — 
not  to  say  several  rings  at  once.  That  we  never 
see  it,  or  next  to  never,  is  a  thing  to  be  com- 
plained of  by  the  evolutionist.  Not  by  me.  I  am 
very  well  satisfied  with  the  heavens  as  they  are. 
I  wish  that  Rings,  especially  gaseous  ones,  were 
as  scarce  below  as  they  are  above. 

But  there  is  another  point  of  still  more  striking 
character.  The  Nebular  Hypothesis  requires  the 
gaseous  nebulae  to  be  composed  of  as  great  a  va- 
riety of  elements,  in  the  same  general  proportion,  as 
our  sun  and  the  stars.  But  the  solar  spectrum  is 
striped  with  more  than  two  thousand  lines  —  the 
principal  stars,  such  as  Vega,  Capella,  Aldebaran, 
Sirius,  show  spectra  hardly  less  rich  —  some  fifty 
other  stars  have  been  put  to  the  question  and  have 
reluctantly  confessed  to  similar  wealth  —  in  fine, 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  nearly  all  the  stars 
are  made  up  of  a  great  variety  of  elements.  We 
ought  to  find  a  similar  variety  in  the  gaseous  neb- 
ulae, if  they  do  indeed  stand  for  the  stars  in  their 
first  stages.  But,  actually,  we  find  all  these  neb- 
ulae about  as  poor  just  here  as  they  can  well  be 
without  being  quite  bankrupt.  None  of  them  give 
more  than  four  or  five  bright  bands  in  the  spec- 
troscope, most  of  them  give  only  three,  and  some 

10 


29O  NINTH  LECTURE. 

give  only  one  band.  In  general,  only  nitrogen  and 
hydrogen  and,  perhaps,  another  unknown  element, 
appear  in  the  spectrum.  If  this  tells  the  whole 
story,  it  is  indeed  a  very  sorry  chemical  treasury 
which  the  gaseous  nebulae  have  as  compared  with 
that  of  the  flushed  and  wealthy  stars.  Hardly 
enough  to  keep  them  in  countenance,  hardly 
enough  for  daily  bread,  certainly  not  enough  for 
the  society  they  move  in.  But  is  this  the  whole  ? 
May  there  not  be  in  the  background  other  ele- 
ments too  weak  to  show  in  so  faint  a  spectrum  ? 
The  brightest  gaseous  nebula,  that  in  the  sword 
of  Orion,  gives  only  three  bands  :  a  much  fainter 
spiral  gives  four.  The  Dumb  Bell  Nebula,  and 
that  in  Aquarius,  which  give  each  but  a  single 
bar,  are  brighter  than  many  a  planetary  nebula 
which  gives  a  triplet  of  bars.  Besides,  in  the 
stellar  spectra  generally  there  are  many  other 
lines  quite  as  strongly  marked  as  those  of  nitrogen 
and  hydrogen.  Often  more  strongly  than  these. 
Sometimes  these  two  elements  do  not  report 
themselves  at  all.  This  shows  that  if  other  ele- 
ments exist  in  the  gaseous  nebulas  they  ought  to 
show  themselves  in  the  spectra  :  for,  the  supposi- 
tion is  that  their  elements  are  in  general  propor- 
tioned to  each  other  as  they  are  in  the  stars. 


THE    WHOLE  FIELD.  29 1 

Hence,  some  three  elements  express  substan- 
tially the  whole  contents  of  nearly  every  gaseous 
nebula.  And  these  elements  are  not  only  the  same 
in  number  for  nearly  every  nebula,  but  they  are 
also  the  same  in  kind  and  proportion  ;  while  the 
elements  of  the  stars  differ  widely  from  each  other 
in  these  respects.  Also,  nitrogen  is  invariably  the 
leading  element  in  the  gaseous  nebulae,  while  far 
from  being  so  in  the  stars.  Of  course  such  neb- 
ulae cannot  be  the  parents  of  such  stars  —  the  one 
class  almost  emptiness  itself,  and  the  other  as 
swollen  with  chemical  riches  as  ever  were  western 
clouds  with  the  rainbows  of  departing  day  ;  the 
one  class  always  dominated  by  nitrogen,  and  the 
other  very  far  from  showing  any  sign  of  such 
fealty  ;  the  one  all  alike  in  their  elements,  and  the 
other  as  various  as  the  devices  of  heraldry  or  the 
gay  ribbons  of  commerce. 

Thus  we  have  gone  over  the  three  great  astro- 
nomical fields  —  the  solar  system,  the  stellar  sys- 
tems, and  the  nebulae.  In  each  field  we  have  been 
met  by  numerous  facts  in  apparent  conflict  with 
the  Nebular  Hypothesis.  We  found  our  sun  still 
glowing  with  a  heat  and  light  so  enormous  as  to 
repel  the  idea  that  it  is  but  the  embers  of  an  ex- 
hausted conflagration  :  we  found  the  chemical  con- 


292  NINTH  LECTURE. 

stitution  of  our  system  so  various  in  different  parts 
as  to  discourage  us  from  thinking  that  its  members 
were  all  formed  out  of  one  boiling  mass,  as  well 
compounded  as  ever  were  the  anxiously  stirred  and 
shaken  preparations  of  the  apothecary  or  chemist : 
we  found  its  members  differing  among  themselves 
as  to  size,  density,  moons,  atmospheres,  water,  in 
so  irregular  a  way  as  cannot  be  reconciled  with 
the  idea  that  they  were  all  formed  from  the  same 
mist  under  the  same  general  circumstances,  or 
circumstances  changing  steadily  according  to  a 
simple  law  :  we  found  that  both  the  rotations  and 
the  revolutions  of  the  system  fly  in  the  face  of 
a  theory  which  requires  them  all  to  be  easterly, 
all  circular,  all  in  the  plane  of  the  sun's  equator, 
and  all  under  the  same  laws  generally  for  planets 
and  for  satellites. 

Passing  to  the  stellar  systems,  we  found  that 
many  of  them  are  of  great  visible  size  ;  are  with- 
out dominant  central  orbs  ;  show  no  graduation 
from  the  center  outward  in  the  light,  distance, 
and  size  of  its  members  ;  have  their  orbits  very 
elliptical  and  in  widely  different  planes  ;  differ 
exceedingly  in  chemical  constitution,  whether  we 
compare  the  stars  of  the  same  group  or  of  differ- 
ent groups  with  each  other  —  being  in  all  these 


THE    WHOLE   FIELD.  293 

particulars  just  the  opposite  of  what  we  are  taught 
by  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  to  expect. 

Passing  on  still  to  the  great  nebular  field,  we 
found  that,  while  the  chief  findings  of  the  spectro- 
scope are  explainable  on  the  supposition  that  all 
the  nebulae  are  clouds  of  separate  stars,  there  are 
great  positive  difficulties  in  the  way  of  supposing 
that  they  are  merely  vast  oceans  of  thinnest  vapor 
—  in  the  facts  that  they  are  seen  at  such  immense 
distances,  that  they  often  appear  under  very  irreg- 
ular shapes,  that  they  maintain  great  permanency 
of  general  aspect  both  as  to  contour  and  interior 
configuration,  that  they  often  are  sharply  defined 
and  uniformly  bright  throughout.  Indeed,  we 
found  that  if  we  grant  that  the  nebulae  are  mere 
fire  mists,  they  cannot  be  accepted  as  being  suck 
fire  mists  as  would  be  available  for  making  bodies 
like  the  planets,  sun,  and  stars  —  because  too  few, 
too  small,  too  scanty  in  specimen  stages,  and 
especially  too  poor  in  chemical  constitution. 

These  facts,  you  observe,  are  very  many  and 
various.  They  belong  to  the  latest  researches 
as  well  as  to  the  most  ancient.  They  are 
gathered  from  widely  different  fields  as  well  as 
widely  different  periods  —  indeed  from  all  the 
great  astronomical  fields  accessible  to  us.     And 


294  NINTH  LECTURE. 

they  are  not  merely  facts  which  will  have  nothing 
to  do  with  the  Nebular  Hypothesis,  of  which  we 
have  a  plenty  —  not  merely  facts  shooting  at  it  a 
whole  font  of  interrogation  points,  of  which  we 
have  more  than  a  plenty  —  but  facts  that  directly 
assail  it  with  aspect  and  gesture  of  battle.  They 
assail  a  scheme  already  encumbered  by  a  host  of 
facts  hanging  at  its  skirts,  and  teasing  for  explana- 
tion of  themselves  with  incessant  clamors  which 
can  neither  be  satisfied  nor  silenced.  In  this 
hampered  condition,  what  has  it  for  defense,  save 
such  Swiss  soldiers  as  can  be  hired  to  defend 
almost  any  hypothesis  —  that  is  to  say,  certain 
scattered  agreements  with  Nature.  An  hypothe- 
sis must  be  terribly  outrageous  not  to  have  some 
verisimilitudes  about  it.  No  error,  no  heresy,  no 
Satan  even,  that  has  ever  offered  itself  to  the 
world  in  either  art  or  science  or  religion,  has  been 
without  some  bits  of  the  wardrobe  of  an  angel  of 
light.  But,  then,  these  defenders  of  the  Nebular 
Hypothesis  are  very  curious  defenders  after  all. 
They  fight  just  as  hard  for  the  Theistic  Hypothe- 
sis as  they  do  for  the  other.  They  agree  at  least 
as  well  with  the  idea  that  the  worlds  were  created 
by  eternal  God  as  they  do  with  the  idea  that  they 
were  developed  from  eternal  matter.    When  pushed 


THE  WHOLE  FIELD.  295 

into  the  foreground  by  evolutionists,  to  do  battle  in 
their  behalf,  they  flatly  refuse  to  serve.  They  are 
neutrals.  They  sit  on  the  fence.  They  neither 
help  nor  hinder  —  until  it  is  plain  which  way  the 
battle  will  go.  Then  they  help  the  winning  party. 
Just  as  soon  as  Nature  begins  to  give  way  before 
the  Supernatural  they  begin  to  discover  what  side 
they  are  on.  "  This  is  our  side,"  they  exclaim,  "  it 
has  ahvays  been  our  side  ; "  and  away  they  dash  in 
chase  of  the  fugitives  after  the  most  approved 
manner  of  the  chivalry.  I  shall  not  condemn 
them  for  this.  It  is  altogether  proper  —  as  well 
as  exceedingly  human.  Who  does  not  know  that 
when  faith  is  once  victorious  every  verisimilitude 
about  it  adds  to  its  strength  ?  Really  —  so  lame, 
so  embarrassed,  so  poorly  supported  by  its  nomi- 
nal friends  —  the  Nebular  Hypothesis  is  not  well 
defended  against  the  three  formidable  archers 
who  have  agreed  to  play  against  it  from  the 
hio-hts  of  their  azure  fortress.  Three  archers  ; 
Robin  Hood,  William  Tell,  Aster  of  Amphipolis 
—  three  silver  quivers  ;  each  full  of  arrows,  tough, 
sharp,  well-feathered,  addressed  to  Philip's  right 
eye  —  three  sounding  bows  ;  borrowed  from 
Diana  and  Phoebus  and  all  the  heavenly  host ; 
bent  by  three  athlete  Astronomies,  till  the  tips 


296  NINTH  LECTURE. 

meet ;  bent  against  the  latest  atheism,  because 
against  the  only  scheme  that  in  these  days  tries 
to  explain  the  heavens  without  a  God ! 

The  case  seems  to  be  this.  A  man  sits  down 
in  his  study  and  draws  a  chart  of  certain  seas.  He 
has  never  been  on  them.  No  voyagers  have  ever 
described  them  to  him.  Much  less  has  some  Coast 
Survey  Commission  carefully  sounded  and  triangu- 
lated for  him  the  whole  district.  But  he  has  a  cer- 
tain geological  idea  :  or  he  has  a  certain  idea 
mythological;  and  has  been  told  that  the  giant  Ty- 
phon,  so  many  miles  long,  was  once  cast  down  into 
that  district  and  outlined  its  surface  by  his  pros- 
trate and  buried  form  :  or  he  has  stumbled  on  the 
notion  that  the  irregularities  of  the  earth's  sur- 
face are  a  sort  of  mineral  vegetation,  say  a  mineral 
cucumber,  whose  law  of  stock  and  branch  and  leaf 
is  well  known  :  or  he  has  made  the  discovery  that 
the  earth  itself  is  but  a  huge  animal,  whose  whole 
frame  and  exterior,  as  of  some  Mastodon,  can  be 
scientifically  divined  from  any  bit  of  it  however 
small.  So  he  sets  to  work.  He  maps  down  the 
district  as  it  ought  to  be  on  his  principles.  That 
the  map  may  be  attractive  as  well  as  true,  he  paints 
it.  Then  he  passes  it  over  to  a  sailor  for  a  practi- 
cal trial.    Up  with  the  anchor,  fling  free  the  sails, 


A   VOYAGE.  297 

grasp  the  wheel  with  your  hands  and  the  chart 
with  your  eyes  —  now  see  what  we  shall  come  to  ! 
Coasting  along,  we  notice  here  and  there  a  head- 
land which  seems  to  answer  tolerably  well  to  the 
chart ;  but,  meanwhile,  we  are  constantly  finding, 
on  the  right  hand  and  on  the  left,  objects  which  do 
not  appear  on  the  paper  at  all.  But  this  is  not 
the  worst.  Sometimes,  where  the  map  says  fifty 
fathoms,  we  sound  and  find  five  —  sometimes, 
where  we  are  bid  to  expect  good  anchorage,  we 
cast  out  and  find  the  worst  bottom  possible  — 
sometimes,  where  a  strong  current  is  set  down 
with  its  heavy  arrows,  we  find  still  water  ;  or,  where 
the  flow  is  set  down  as  being  easterly,  we  find  it 
westerly  —  sometimes,  we  come  across  a  strait 
where  there  should  be  a  sound  ;  a  shoal,  a  reef, 
an  island,  a  continent  where  should  be  unob- 
structed sailing.  How  long  would  we  go  on  in 
this  way  before  giving  up  our  remarkable  chart 
and  the  principle  on  which  it  was  made  ?  Not 
more  than  a  thousand  miles.  The  occasional 
agreements  would  go  for  nothing.  The  numer- 
ous disagreements  would  quickly  wreck  our  con- 
fidence, if  they  did  not  our  ship.  We  fling  the 
worthless  paper  away  with  both  hands — though 
on  one  corner  of  it  may  be  seen,  "  G.  Hersche- 

lius  P1NXIT." 


298  NINTH  LECTURE. 

So  a  man*  makes  out,  on  the  principles  of  the 
Nebular  Hypothesis,  a  map  of  what  we  ought  to 
find  in  the  skies.  I  take  it  on  trial,  and  set  out 
to  navigate  with  it  celestial  seas.  "  Ho,  men  ! 
Shake  out  every  rag  of  canvas !  The  way  is 
long  and  we  have  no  time  to  lose."  Away  goes 
our  adventurous  Argo  before  the  wind  ;  and, 
sure  enough,  it  is  not  long  before  we  are  obliged 
to  confess  to  finding,  on  the  celestial  coasts,  a 
bluff  here  and  a  turn  in  the  channel  there  that 
very  well  agree  with  the  description.  But  then, 
where  are  these  features  of  the  azure  oceans,  and 
these,  and  these  —  why  do  they  not  appear  on  the 
map  ?  "  But  sail  away,  O  Jason,  and  see  if  the 
sailing  does  not  improve  !  You  have  only  just  be- 
gun your  voyage.  Perhaps  you  will  yet  find  the 
Golden  Fleece."  So  we  go  on  —  go  on  to  bring  up 
squarely  against  astronomies,  which,  according  to 
the  Nebular  chart,  not  only  ought  not  to  be  there, 
but  whose  place  ought  to  be  held  by  their  direct 
opposites  —  brightness  where  should  be  dimness  ; 
diversity  where  should  be  sameness  ;  irregular 
sequences  where  should  be  regular  ;  westerly  mo- 
tions where  should  be  easterly  ;  individuals  where 
should  be  groups  ;  ellipses,  and  sometimes  almost 
parabolas,  where  should  be  circles  ;  discord  of  or- 


A    VOYAGE.  299 

bits,  largely  perpendicular  discord,  where  should 
be  exact  and  immovable  concord  ;  vacancies 
where  great  worlds  should  be,  and  worlds  where 
great  vacancies  should  be  ;  nearness  where  should 
be  remoteness,  and  remoteness  where  should  be 
nearness  ;  largeness  where  should  be  smallness, 
and  smallness  where  should  be  largeness  ;  many 
where  should  be  few  or  none,  and  few  or  none 
where  should  be  many  —  and  so  on  to  the  fiftieth 
astronomical  breaker.  Pray,  how  many  scores  of 
times  shall  our  chart  bring  us  up  against  such 
forbidden  and  unexpected  shoals,  reefs,  islands, 
continents,  before  we  ought  to  see  our  way  clear 
to  conclude  that  the  chart  is  worthless  or  worse, 
and  that  the  curious  principle  on  which  it  was 
made  is  utterly  fallacious  ! 

A  word  in  your  ear.  It  is  a  wonder  that  our 
audacious  vessel  has  not  been  quite  wrecked  under 
such  piloting.  Let  us  venture  no  further.  And 
let  us  join  in  throwing  overboard  the  idea  that 
some  prostrate  Typhon  is  outlining  with  his  huge 
form  the  celestial  geography — that  the  starry 
universe  is  only  a  sort  of  mammoth  vegetable  or 
animal  whose  whole  can  be  described  as  soon  as  a 
single  piece  is  found  —  or,  what  is  about  the  same 
thing,  that  a  chaos  of  smoke  and  bedlam  of  dis- 


300  NINTH  LECTURE. 

jointed  atoms  can  manufacture  itself,  not  only 
into  the  orderly  and  august  schemes  of  the  firma- 
ment, but  even  into  such  elaborate  organic  and 
spiritual  beings  as  crowd  the  surface  of  one  at 
least  of  its  innumerable  orbs. 

"  From  west  to  east  the  earth 
Unrolls  her  primal  curve  ; 
The  sun  himself  were  vexed 
Did  she  one  furlong  swerve  : 
The  myriad  years  have  whirled  her  hither 
But  tell  not  of  the  whence  and  whither." 

"  We  know  but  what  we  see  — 
Like  cause  and  like  event ; 
One  constant  force  runs  on, 
Transmuted  but  unspent  : 
The  natural  choice  that  brought  us  hither 
Is  silent  on  the  whence  and  whither." 

"  If  God  there  be,  or  gods, 
Without  our  science  lies  ; 
We  cannot  see  or  touch, 
Measure  or  analyze  : 

The  self-moved  force  that  brought  us  hither 
Reveals  no  whence,  and  hints  no  whither." 

If  this  be  all  and  all  — 
Life  but  one  mode  of  force  ; 
Law  but  the  plan  which  binds 
The  sequences  in  course  : 


THE  WHENCE  AND   WHITHER.  30I 

All  essence,  all  design 

Shut  out  from  mortal  ken 

We  bow  to  Nature's  fate, 

And  drop  the  style  of  men  ! 

The  summer  dust  the  wind  wafts  hither 

Is  not  more  dead  to  whence  and  whither. 

I  sympathize  with  the  scholar  of  Baliol  in  the 
mingled  shame  and  wrath  with  which  he  wrote 
these  lines.  In  the  face  of  the  heavens  and 
earth  —  what  a  philosophy  !  Our  common  sense 
puts  it  away  with  both  hands.  Phenomena  are 
not  all  that  we  know.  We  know  also  the  Whence 
and  the  Whither.  Tradition  looks  about  on  won- 
derful Nature,  and  then  points  upward  with  her 
finger  of  mist.  Science  looks  about  on  a  Nature 
still  more  wonderful,  and  then  points  upward  with 
her  finger  of  stone.  Revelation  looks  about  on  a 
Nature — Oh,  how  much  more  wonderful  still  — 
and  then  points  upward  with  both  hands  and  with 
all  her  fingers  of  gold.  Following  with  our  eyes 
those  significant  fingers  —  up  through  transpar- 
ency after  transparency,  through  azure  after  azure, 
through  vacant  infinity  after  vacant  infinity  —  we 
come  at  last,  not  to  a  brute  fog  and  miserable 
jumble  of.  know-nothing  mechanics  and  chemis- 
tries that  somehow  manage  to  swing  from  ever- 
lasting to  everlasting  through  paradises  of  order 


302  NINTH  LECTURE. 

and  beauty  and  construction,  but  to  a  sceptered 
person  whose  glory  abashes  and  rebukes  all 
human  words.  That  scepter  waves,  and  from  its 
diamond  tip  leap  worlds,  systems,  universes. 
That  scepter  waves  again,  and  straightway  the 
naked  worlds  are  clothed  with  more  than  the 
jeweled  robes  of  Solomon.  Waves  the  scepter 
still  again,  and  at  once  the  miracle  animals  take 
their  places  in  the  ready  palaces  of  sea  and  air  and 
land.  Waves  again,  and  still  more  emphatically, 
that  scepter,  and  lo,  souls,  with  their  constellation- 
faculties  and  glorious  orbits  of  thought  and  hope 
and  achievement  and  virtue,  leap  forth  in  still 
superber  astronomies  to  reign  over  all.  Behold 
the  Whence  —  the  Whither  also  ! 

This  is  the  higher  philosophy.  And  yet  it  is 
the  philosophy  with  which  we  started  in  life. 
From  the  dear  lips  of  sainted  fathers  and  mothers 
we  long  ago  heard  of  Him  "  who  spake  and  it  was 
done,  who  commanded  and  it  stood  fast."  And 
now  that  we  have  lived  to  lift  for  ourselves  just  a 
corner  of  the  veil  which  screens  the  magnificence 
of  Nature,  we  see  no  reason  to  go  back  on  the 
teachings  of  our  childhood,  but  rather  reason  to 
say  that  such  wonders  can  only  be  creatures  of 
law   by  being   at    first   hand    creatures   of  God. 


THE  WHENCE  AND  WHITHER.  3 03 

Creatures  of  God  let  us  call  them  —  and  so  repeat 
the  venerable  traditions.  Creatures  of  God  let  us 
call  them  —  and  so  affirm  anew  the  grandest  and 
most  useful  fact  the  world  has  ever  known.  Crea- 
tures of  God  let  us  call  them  —  and  so  put  our 
science  at  one  with  the  religion  that  has  ever  been 
saying,  "We  understand  that  the  worlds  were 
framed  by  the  word  of  God,  so  that  things  which 
are  seen  were  not  made  of  things  which  do  ap- 
pear." Creatures  of  God  let  us  call  them  —  and 
so  have  a  chart  by  which  we  can  easily  find  our 
way  in  the  darkest  night  and  under  clouds  of 
swollen  canvas,  not  only  amid  the  shining  Poly- 
nesias  of  the  sky,  but  also  amid  the  more  difficult 
and  more  shining  Micronesias  of  organism  and 
spirit  that  so  thickly  spangle  the  floods  and  fields 
of  our  own  world  ;  and  the  smallest  of  whose 
glorious  islands,  whether  constellated  below  01 
constellated  above,  is  both  a  mystery  and  a 
breaker,  save  in  the  light  of  GOD. 


A    REMARKABLE    BOOK. 


ECCE    CCELUM; 

OB, 

PARISH     ASTRONOMY. 

By  Rev.  E.  F.  BURR,  D.D. 

1  vol.  16mo,  198  pp.    Price,  $1.25.    New  Edition.    Sent  prepaid  by  mail 
on  receipt  of  price. 


noyes,  holmes  &  co. 
117    Washington    Street,    Boston. 


The  Publishers  request  special  attention  to  the  following  un« 
solicited  testimonials,   which  have  been  received  from   sources 
worthy  of  regard. 
From  Rev.  W.  A.  Stearns,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  President  of  Amherst  College. 

"  I  have  read  it  with  great  profit  and  admiration.  It  is  a  grand 
production,  — very  clear  and  satisfactory,  scientifically  considered, 
very  exalted  and  exalting  in  spirit  and  manner ;  and  exhibiting  a 
wealth  of  appropriate  emotion  and  expression  which  surprises  me 
May  the  life  and  health  of  the  author  be  spared  to  show  stih 
further  that  God  is  and  that  His  works  are  great,  sought  out  o\ 
them  that  have  pleasure  therein." 

From  Rev.  Horace  Buslinell,  D.D. 
"  I  have  not  been  so  much  fascinated  by  any  book  for  a  long 
time  — never  by  a  book  on  that  particular  subject.  It  is  popu- 
larised in  the  form,  yet  not  evaporated  in  the  substance,  —  it 
tingles  with  life  all  through,  — and  the  wonder  is,  that,  casting  off 
so  much  of  the  paraphernalia  of  science,  and  descending,  for  the 
most  pari,  to  common  language,  it  brings  out,  not  so  much,  but  s 
much  more  of  the  meaning.     1  hnve  gotten  a  better  idea  of  Aatrnn 


»my,  as  a  whole,  from  it  than  1  ever  got  before  from  all  othel 
sources,  —  more  than  from  Enfield's  great  book,  which  I  once  care 
fully  worked  out,  eclipses  and  all. 

"  I  trace  the  progress  made,  and  the  methods  of  the  same,  and 
seize  on  the  exact  status  of  things  at  the  point  now  reached." 

From  the  Bibliotheca  Sacra. 
"  This  is  a  remarkable  book,  —  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
which  has  proceeded  from  the  American  press  for  a  long  time.  II 
Kits  the  reader  fairly  into  the  heavens  and  unveils  their  glories. 
The  presentation  is  very  full  though  concentrated,  very  clear  and 
animating,  —  with  a  command  of  language  and  a  glow  of  eloquence 
which  is  quite  extraordinary.  The  last  lecture  is  hardly  less  than 
a  Te  Deum.  The  only  adverse  criticism  which,  on  reading  the 
preparatory  lecture,  we  were  inclined  to  make,  was,  that  the  almost 
impassioned  eloquence  with  which  it  opened  would  have  bean 
more  impressive  further  on,  and  after  the  imagination  had  been 
excited  by  the  facts.  But,  after  finishing  the  last  Lecture,  we 
could  not  wonder  that  a  mind  so  full  of  the  great  facts,  and  of  the 
emotion  which  they  necessarily  kindle,  should,  on  seeing  his  own 
parish  charge  assembled  to  listen,  break  forth  in  strains  which- none 
but  a  mind  fully  roused  by  his  theme  and  his  audience  would 
have  been  able  to  utter.  No  person  can  read  through  this  volume 
without  mental  exaltation,  and  a  conviction  of  the  peculiar  ability 
of  the  author." 

From  the  New  Englander. 
"  It  presents  an  admirable  resume"  of  the  sublime  teachings  ot 
Astronomy,  as  related  to  naturctl  religion,  —  a  series  of  brilliant 
pen-photographs  of  the  Wonders  of  the  Heavens,  as  part  of  God's 
glorious  handiwork.  The  first  five  lectures  pass  the  science  in 
rapi  1  review  ;  the  last  treats  of  the  Author  of  Nature,  as  related  to 
its  leading  features.  There  is  not  a  dry  page  in  the  volume,  bul 
much  originality  and  vigor  of  style,  and  often  the  highest  elo- 
quence. It  is,  withal,  evidently  by  an  author  at  home  in  his  sub- 
ject, not  "  crammed  "  for  the  task.  It  affords  a  fine  example  of 
what  an  intelligent  pastor  can  do,  outside  of  his  pulpit,  towards 
raining  an  intelligent  people,  and  by  imparting  to  them  Nature's 


teachings,  leading  "  through  Nature  u  >  to  Nature's  God,"  —  the 
God  of  Revelation  as  well.  To  such  a  book  the  author  need  not 
hesitate  to  affix  his  name." 

vnm  Rev.  A.  P.  Peabody,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  Preacher  to  Harvard  University, 
and  Plummet'  Professor  of  Christian  Morals. 

"  Permit  me  to  thank  you  for  a  work  in  which  you  have  effected 
«  rare  union  of  scientific  accuracy,  eloquent  diction,  and  rich  dt* 
rotional  sentiment.  It  is  attractive,  instructive,  and  edifying.  It 
appears  at  a  time  when  science  needs,  as  never  before,  to  be 
redeemel  and  sanctified  by  faith  in  Him,  in  whom  are  hidden  all 
the  treasures  of  wisdom  and  knowledge.  And,  best  of  all,  it  does 
not  make  Religion  cringe  to  Science,  but  maintains  her  in  that 
queenly  status  which  is  the  only  position  she  can  hold.  The  book 
must  do  great  good,  and  I  heartily  congratulate  you  as  its  author." 

From  Rev.  S.  II.  Hall,  D.D. 
"Ecce  Coelum  is  much  more  than  a  book-success.     It  will  be 
honored  as  a  most  timely  and 'admirable  treatise  to  put  into  the 
jand  of  thoughtful  young  people,  to  '  turn  off  their  minds  from 
canity/  and  lead  them  to  God." 

From  tfie  New- York  Evangelist. 
"  This  unpretending,  though  elegant  little  volume,  gives  a  most 
admirable  popular  summary  of  the  results  of  Astronomical  Sci- 
ence. The  author  has  evidently  mastered  his  subject,  and  he  has 
presented  it  in  a  most  striking  manner,  adapted  to  the  comprehen- 
sion of  the  common  reader,  and  enriched  with  pertinent  illus- 
trations. The  book  is  perhaps  the  most  fascinating  treatise  on  the 
seence  which  has  been  published  of  late  years,  ranking  indeed 
in  many  respects  with  that  of  the  late  lamented  and  eloquent 
Mitchell.  One  of  its  excellencies  is  that  it  doee  not  hide  God 
behind  his  own  creation.'" 

From  the  Religious  Herald. 
"A  New  Book,  and  one  that  is  a  book,  worth  its  weight  in 
gold  or  diamonds,  for  it  is  full  of  gold  and  precious  gems,  —  dia- 
monds of  law  and  fact,  —  truths  beaming  with   celestial  light     J 


4 


speak  of  cEcce  Caelum/  from  the  pen  of  Rev.  Enoch  F.  Bcbk, 
D.D.,  of  Lyme,  Conn.,  published  by  Isichols  &  Noyes,  Boston,  a 
duodecimo  of  198  pages.  Mr.  Burr  modestly  signs  himself  '  A 
Connecticut  Pastor/  but  some  college  has  rent  the  vail  and  written 
out  his  full  name,  and  added  to  it  a  D.D.  So  much  the  better  for 
Connecticut  and  for  the  world.  Such  light  as  the  book  contains 
j ught  not  to  be  under  a  bushel. 

"  These  six  Parish  Lectures  are  a  masterly,  vivid,  easy,  sub 
lime  presentation  of  the  enchanting  facts  of  Astronomy.  They 
are  adapted  to  all  classes,  —  the  learned  and  the  unlearned.  The 
astounding  glories  of  the  skies  are  tempered  to  our  humble  eyes. 

"  Let  all  read  the  book,  old  and  young.  Let  it  be  found  in 
every  school,  in  every  library,  and  .in  every  home  where  wisdom 
is  invoked.  Bead  it,  and  you  will  exclaim,  what  glorious  light  it 
sheds  from  the  throne  of  God  upon  the  lonely  pathway  of  man !  " 

From  C  H.  Balsbaugh,  of  Pennsylvania. 
"It  is  certainly  a  wonderful  little  book.  How  the  world 
shrinks  into  an  atom  as  we  follow  the  lofty  soarings  of  the  '  Con- 
necticut Pastor.'  I  never  knew  rightly  what  Dr.  Young  means 
by  saying,  '  an  undevout  Astronomer  is  mad  ; '  but  I  now  see  and 
feel  the  power  and  beauty  of  the  expression.  Such  a  book  cannot 
be  read  without  laying  upon  us  the  responsibility  of  a  new  charge 
from  heaven.  After  contemplating  such  grandeur,  we  instinctively 
exclaim,  «  What  is  man  that  Thou  art  mindful  of  him  ?  '  " 

From  Eon.  S.  L.  Selden,  Late  Chief  Justice  of  New  York. 
"  A  beautiful  book.  I  admire  it  for  the  elegance  of  its  style,  as 
well  as  for  the  lucid  and  able  manner  in  which  it  presents  the 
noblest  of  the  sciences.  It  will  prove,  I  think,  very  valuable,  rot 
merely  for  the  knowledge  it  communicates,  but  as  suggestive  of  a 
jne  of  noble  and  elevated  thought.  And  I  am  much  pleased  to  see 
from  the  numerous  notices  which  have  come  under  my  observa- 
tion that  my  estimate  is  confirmed  by  many  persons  of  the  first 
capacity  for  judging.  To  have  written  a  work  which  receives 
md  deserves  such  very  high  praise  from  scholars  and  men  oi 
science  cannot  but  be  a  source  of  great  gratification  to  th« 
luthor." 


ECCE    CCELUM; 


PARISH  ASTRONOMY. 


ELEVENTH    EDITION. 


SUPPLEMENTARY  EXTRACTS. 

From  the  Theological  Eclectic,  [Edited  by  Professor  Day,  Schaff,  etc.] 

"The  style  is  remarkably  graphic  and  elastic,  and  the  matter  is 
so  skilfully  grouped  and  lucidly  stated  as  to  be  level  to  all  classes 
of  readers.  The  writer  has  a  rare  gift  at  popularizing  science, 
and  his  book  deserves  the  wide  welcome  it  has  received." 

From  the  New  York  Observer. 
"  We  have  never  yet  seen  a  volume  on  Astronomy  that  seemed 
to  us  to  explain  more  intelligently,  to  ordinary  minds,  the  visible 
phenomena  of  the  heavenly  bodies." 

From  the  Congregationalist. 
"  We  advise  all  our  readers  who  have  not  yet  read  the  book 
entitled  '  Ecce  Coalum,'  to  embrace  their  earliest  opportunity  to 
do  so, — a  book  which  certainly  has  beeu  surpassed  by  nothing 
of  this  general  line,  for  many  years,  if  ever.  There  is  a  grandeur 
of  conception — an  easy  grasp  of  great  facts — a  clear  apprehen- 
sion of  deep  and  subtle  relations — a  power  to  see,  and  make 
others  see,  the  nature  and  extent  of  the  heavenly  movements, 
such  as  are  altogether  wonderful.  Many  works  have  been  writ- 
ten from  time  to  time  to  popularize  astronomy — to  bring  its 
great  leading  features  within  the  compass  of  unscientific  minds. 
But  we  do  not  know  of  a  work  in  which  this  has  been  so  finely 
done  as  in  '  Ecce  Coelum.'  Six  lectures  of  about  an  hour  each, 
tell  the  story,  and  the  reader  feels,  all  the  while,  as  if  he  were 
upon  a  triumphal  march.     He  is  upborne  and  sustaiued  by  his 


guide,  so  that  he  has  no  sense  of  labor  and  weariness  on  the 
journey.  The  last  chapter,  on  '  The  Author  of  Nature,'  is  a 
most  worthy  and  fitting  close  to  the  hook.  We  wish  it  could  be 
read  by  that  great  host  of  so-called  scientific  men,  who  are  delv- 
ing away  in  the  mines  of  nature,  with  thoughts  and  purposes 
materialistic  and  half  atheistic.  They  need  the  tonic  of  such 
Christian  thinking  as  this." 

From  Hours  at  Home. 
"  This  little  book,  from  the  pen  of  Eev.  E.  F.  Burr,  D.D.,  has 
already  been  noticed  extensively  and  pronounced  a  '  remarkable 
book '  by  our  best  critics.  The  author  first  delivered  the  sub- 
stance of  it  to  his  own  people  in  familiar  lectures.  It  presents  a 
clear  and  succinct  resume  of  the  sublime  teachings  of  astronomy, 
especially  as  related  to  natural  religion.  The  theme  is  an  in- 
spiring one,  and  the  author  is  master  of  his  subject,  and  handles 
it  with  rare  tact,  and  succeeds  as  few  men  have  ever  done  in 
giving  an  intelligent  view  of  the  wonders  of  astronomy,  accord- 
ing to  the  latest  researches  and  discoveries.  It  is  indeed  an 
eloquent  and  masterly  production." 

From  Harper's  Monthly. 
"  The  title  page  of  '  Ecce  Ccelum '  is  the  poorest  page  in  the 
book.  We  have  seen  nothing  since  the  days  of  Dr.  Chalmer's 
Astronomical  Discourses  equal  in  their  kind  to  these  six  simple 
lectures.  By  an  imagination  which  is  truly  contagious  the 
writer  lifts  us  above  the  earth  and  causes  us  to  wander  for  a 
time  among  the  stars.  The  most  abstruse  truths  he  succeeds  in 
translating  into  popular  forms.  Science  is  with  him  less  a  study 
than  a  poem,  less  a  poem  than  a  form  of  devotion.  The  writer 
who  can  convert  the  Calculus  into  a  fairy  story,  as  Dr.  Burr  has 
done,  may  fairly  hope  that  no  theme  can  thwart  the  solving 
power  of  his  imagination.  An  enthusiast  in  science,  he  is  also 
an  earnest  Christian  at  heart.  He  makes  no  attempt  to  recon- 
cile science  and  religion,  but  writes  as  with  a  charming  ignor- 
ance that  any  one  had  ever  been  so  absurdly  irrational  as  to 
imagine  that  they  were  ever  at  variance." 

From  the  Evangelist. 

"  We  have  had  many  inquiries  in  regard  to  the  authorship  of 

Rcce  Ccelum,'    the  volume  noticed  somewhat  at  length  two 


weeks  since.  To  save  writing  a  number  of  letters,  we  may  say 
here,  that  the  Country  Pastor,  who  is  the  author  of  these  six 
Lectures  on  '  Parish  Astronomy,'  is  the  Rev.  E.  F.  Burr,  D.D., 
of  Lyme,  Ct.  The  book  is  a  IGnio  of  ahout  two  hundred 
pages,  but  in  that  small  compass  it  corn  pi  ises  the  results  of  long 
study,  and  will  be  found  as  instructive  as  it  is  eloquent.  The 
grandest  truths  are  made  level  to  the  plainest  understanding. 
We  took  it  up,  expecting  little  from  its  humble  pretensions,  but 
soon  found  that  it  was  all  compact  with  scientific  knowledge, 
yet  glowing  with  religious  faith,  and  were  not  surprised  that  Dr 
Bushnell  should  say  he  '  had  not  been  so  fascinated  by  any  book 
for  a  long  time  —  never  by  a  book  on  that  subject ' —  and  that  it 
had  given  him  '  a  better  idea  of  astronomy  than  he  ever  got  be- 
fore from  all  other  sources.'  We  don't  know  if  they  have  many 
such  ministers  '  lying  around'  in  the  country  parishes  of  Con- 
necticut, but  if  so  it  must  be  a  remarkable  State. 

"  While  the  impression  of  this  fascinating  volume  is  fresh  in 
mind,"  etc. 

From  Rev.  G.  W.  Andrews,  D.D.,  President  of  Marietta  College. 

"  The  author  has  succeeded  admirably  in  his  attempt  to  pre- 
sent the  great  facts  of  Astronomical  Science  in  such  form  as  to 
be  intelligible  to  those  who  have  not  gone  through  with  a 
thorough  mathematical  training,  and  to  make  them  intensely  in- 
teresting to  all  classes  of  readers.  I  cannot  express  more  strong- 
ly the  interest  the  volume  excited  than  by  saying  that  I  read 
through  at  once.  I  can  hardly  remember  when  I  have  done  the 
Bame  with  another  work." 

From  Rev.  Edwin  Hall,  D.D.,  Professor  in  Auburn  Theological  Seminary 
"I  received  it  last  night,  and  have  read  it  through  with  intense 
interest  and  delight.  It  is  a  worthy  book  on  a  mighty  theme. 
I  wish  it  might  be  in  every  household,  and  read  by  everybody. 
And  I  am  sure  it  will  be  read  with  admiration  and  wonder  long 
lifter  the  author  shall  have  been  gathered  to  his  fatb  u*s." 

From  Rev.  Prof.  E.  W.  Hooker,  D.  D. 
"  The  book  id  an  admirable  argument  from  the  discoveries  of 
modern  Astronomers,  for  the  existence  of  God ;  and  indirectly 
for  the  truth  of  the  Gospel.    It  is  an  honor  to  his  kindred,  to  the 


Chjrch  and  the  place  of  his  birth,  and,  above  all,  to  Him  ^hose  gos- 
pel  he  preadies." 

From  an  Obituary  of  Rev.  S.  L.  Pomroy,  D.D.,  late  Secretary  of  the 
A.  B.  C.  F.  M. 

"  He  was  a  man  of  extensive  information,  a  ripe  scholar,  and  he 
retained  his  scholarly  habits  and  tastes  to  the  last.  A  few  weeks 
Bince  he  read  'Ecce  Coelum'  with  great  pleasure  and  satisfaction, 
When  he  returned  it  he  remarked,  '  I  have  read  it  all  twice,  parts  of 
it  three  times,  and  have  noted  down  certain  passages.'  He  was  spec- 
ially delighted  with  the  arrangement  of  the  work  —  the  grouping  of 
the  different  system  so  as  to  give  us  something  Hke  a  comprehensive 
idea  of  the  grand  whole." 

From  the  Congregational  Quarterly. 

That  a  Connecticut  Pastor  should  be  able  in  six  lectures  to  his  pec- 
ble  to  shed  more  light  on  this  profound  subject — to  make  it  more 
simple  and  yet  more  grand,  amazing,  and  impressive  —  than  many 
of  the  great  masters  who  have  written  before  him  is  a  matter  of  sur- 
prise. Yet  this  seems  to  be  the  generally  conceded  opinion  of  the 
press.  We  hear  but  one  testimony  concerning  Ecce  Coelum.  Any 
intelligent  reader  of  it  can  understand  what  before  has  been  only  a 
mystery.     It  is  worthy  of  the  widest  circulation. 

From  the  Lawrence  American. 

There  is  not  a  dry  page  in  these  six  lectures  ;  but  the  glories  of  tho 
skies  are  presented  in  a  most  enchanting  manner,  vivid,  popular, 
grand,  and  glowing.         Young  and  old  should  read  it. 

From  The  Christian  Union. 
We  can  commend  this  book  in  the  heartiest  manner.  It  is  one  of  the 
nobles*  examples  of  the  moral  uses  of  astronomy  that  have  appeared 
since  Chalmer's  astronomical  sermons.  Besides  their  intrinsic 
merit,  these  lectures  show  what  may  be  done  by  a  quiet  pastor  of  a 
village  church  for  tin  instruction  of  his  people.  Every  preacher  has 
not  the  equipment  required  for  a  course  of  scientific  lectures :  but 
"  where  there  is  a  will  there  is  a  way,"  and  much  more  might  be 
done  than  is  done  in  broadening  a  pastor's  literary  education  and  in 
raising  the  literary  tastes  of  his  people. 


PATER  MUNDI, 


OR, 


MODERN    SCIENCE    TESTIFYING 

TO  THE 

HEAVENLY  FATHER. 

BY   THE   AUTHOR  OF   "ECCE   CCELUM," 

The  First  Series  is  now  ready.    Tinted  paper.  300  pp.  12mo. 
I  'rice,  $1.50.    Sent  post-paid  on  receipt  of  the  price,  by 

NOYES,    HOLMES,    &    COMPANY, 
117  Washington  Street,  Boston.. 


The  publishers  of  Ecce  Cozlum  now  solicit  the  attention  of 
scholars  and  of  the  public  at  large,- to  a  still  more  important 
work  by  the  same  author.  "Pater  Mundl  is  believed  to  meet  a 
great  need  of  the  times.  Men  are  busy,  as  never  before,  at  taking 
away  the  ancient  Jehovah  in  the  name  of  Science.  In  books,  in 
popular  lectures,  in  journals  having  wide  circulation  and  relig- 
ious pretensions,  and  even  in  colleges  whose  founders  hoped  and 
demanded  better  things  from  them,  the  public  is  being  industri- 
ously persuaded  that  it  is  scientific  as  well  as  natural  to  be  with- 
out God  in  the  world.  Let  all  who  would  see  for  themselves 
how  little  ground  exists  for  such  claims,  read  Pater  Mundi ;  and 
let  all  who  wish  well  to  the  popular  faith,  to  our  holy  religion, 
and  to  the  safety  of  society,  promote  its  circulation  to  the  ut- 
most. It  is  a  book  for  the  times.  Though  in  the  form  of  col- 
lege lectures,  and  claiming  scientific  thoroughness,  it  is  believed 
lo  be  easy  and  luminous  reading  for  all  classes. 


EXTRACTS   FROM   NOTICES. 

From  the  Rev.  W.  A.  Steams,  D.D.,  L.L.D.,  President  of  Amherst  College 
I  have  heard  them  with  the  deepest  interest.  They  are  so  clear,  so  log 
leal,  so  rich  in  illustration,  so  unexceptionable  and  beautiful  in  style,  an*i 
so  conclusive  in  the  argument  attempted,  that  I  have  profoundly  ad- 
mired them.  Those  gentlemen  who  heard  them  when  delivered  here, 
would,  I  am  sure,  from  the  comments  which  they  made  upon  them,  agree 
with  me  entirely  in  the  judgment  I  have  expressed.  May  the  Great  Being 
whose  existence  these  lectures  so  nobly  defend  from  the  attacks  of  the 
foolish,  though  calling  themselves  scientists  and  philosophers,  spare  the 
life  of  the  author  and  enable  him  to  complete  the  full  course  of  thinking 
on  which  he  has  so  triumphantly  entered  and  advanced. 

From  Rev.  Prof.  C.  S.  Lyman,  of  Yale  College. 
All  whom  I  have  heard  speak  of  these  lectures  have  expressed  for  them 
the  highest  admiration.     In  thought  and  diction  they  are  worthy  of 
Chalmers. 

From  Prof.  Julius  H.  Seelye,  Professor  of  Mental  and  Moral   Philoso- 
phy in  Amherst  College. 

It  is  with  great  delight  that  I  have  received  the  new  book.  I  like,  es- 
pecially, its  whole  attitude  respecting  the  question  discussed;  that  it  is  so 
full  of  faith  and  so  uncompromising.  Atheism  is  as  unworthy  the  intel- 
lect, as  it  is  repugnant  to  the  heart;  and  I  am  tired  of  tame  apologies 
from  timid  believers  in  a  God.  I  like  to  see  a  book  that  has  something 
of  a  clarion  ring  about  it,  and  is  not  afraid  to  defy  denial,  when  it  speaks 
of  the  being  and  the  glory  of  the  Heavenly  Father. 

I  believe  that  Pater  Mundi  will  do  great  good,  and  I  thank  the  Lord 
for  permitting  the  author  to  prepare  and  publish  it. 

From  Rev.  A.  P.  Peabody,  D.D.  L.L.D.,  Preacher  to  Harvard  Uni 
versify,  and  Plummet  Professor  of  Christian  Morals. 
I  thank  the  author  with  all  my  heart  for  Fater  Mundi.  It  is  the  most 
efficient  work  of  its  class  which  the  present  generation  has  produced ; 
and  as  the  now  existing  scepticism  is  deeper,  more  [pseudo]  scientific, 
more  pretentious,  than  that  of  any  preceding  age;  the  book  which,  like 
Pater  Mundi,  is  adapted  to  our  times,  must  need  be  both  broader  and 
more  profound  than  previous  needs  have  elicited.  Its  treatment  of  the 
preat  theme  is  at  once  thoroughly  philosophical  and  popular,  both  in 
style  and  in  adaptation  to  the  capacity  of  all  readers  of  average  intelli- 
gence. It  was  an  unspeakable  privilege  to  the  students  of  Amherst  Col- 
lege, to  have  heard  the  lectures;  I  trust  that  the  same  privilege  will  be 
extended  through  the  pre;s  to  thousands  of  our  young  men.  While  I 
find  nofau.1*  nor  deficiency  in  the  treatment  of  any  branch  of  the  argu< 


Bient,  I  am  especially  impressed  by  the  Seventh  Lecture,  as  the  dearest, 
.strongest,  and  most  eloquent  statement  of  the  need  of  God,  and  of  tha 
demonstration  thence  resulting  of  His  existence,  in  the  plenitude  of  Hii 
attributes,  that  has  come  within  the  range  of  my  reading. 

From  Rev.  Albert  Barnes, 

I  was  so  profoundly  impressed,  or,  if  I  may  say  so,  oppressed  and  over- 
wnelmed  with  the  sublimity  and  grandeur  of  the  truths  presented  in  Ecce 
Caelum,  and  with  tha  manner  in  which  the  author  presented  these  great 
truths,  that  I  am  glad  he  has  followed  with  another  volume  on  the  same 
general  subject.  I  anticipate  in  the  perusal  of  it  great  pleasure  and 
profit.  I  think  the  author  is  doing  great  service  to  the  cause  of  truth 
and  I  hope  that  God  will  spare  him  to  complete  his  work. 

So  far  as  I  am  able  to  judge,  the  greatest  enemy  which  Christianity  has 
to  encounter  now,  is  found  in  the  oppositions  of  science,  so-called.  In 
fact,  so  far  as  I  understand  them,  the  aim  and  tend  mcy  of  much  of  this 
science,  are  to  blank  Atheism;  and  I  think  a  man  can  do  no  better  service 
in  this  age,  than  to  meet  and  counteract  this  tendency.  I  rejoice  that 
God  raises  up  men  who  are  qualified  to  do  it.  I  believe  that  the  author  of 
Ecce  Ccelum  is  such  a  man.  He  has  a  noble  work  before  him,  and  I  hope 
he  will  be  enabled  to  do  it. 

From  the  Independent. 

We  had  not  read  Ecce  C&lum,  and  imagined  that  the  enconiums  which 
we  had  seen  pronounced  upon  it  must  be  too  high  wrought  for  sober 
truth.  But  now  that  we  have  read  Pater  Mundi,  by  the  same  author,  we 
are  ready  to  believe  every  word  of  praise  to  have  been  within  bounds- 
The  present  volume  is  no  dry,  didactic  treatise.  It  is  warm,  alive,  elo- 
quent. The  author  proves  himself,  in  his  freshness  of  thought  and  in  the 
eloquence  of  his  argument,  inferior  to  no  writer  of  the  day.  We  find  no 
slips  in  science,  nor  in  his  multiplied  illustrations  from  ancient  and  mod 
em  literature.  And  we  do  find  a  grandeur  of  conception  and  a  striking 
originality  of  conception,  so  audacious  that  scarcely  any  other  writer  we 
know  of  would  have  ventured  upon  it.  We  see  no  reason  why  our  au- 
thor's writings  should  not  become  classics  in  the  language.  Nothing  can 
be  more  invigorating  to  the  thoughtful  reader. 

From  the  Congregationalist. 

We  have  read  it  with  keen  enjoyment,  and  are  disposed  to  regard  it  a? 
be  most  substantial  and  serviceable  contribution  to  the  natural  theology 
of  this  generation,  as  it  is  the  freshest  and  most  popular.  No  better  book 
none  more  entertaining,  can  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  inquisitive  readers, 
especially  bright  minded  young  men  and  women*  The  author  lays  out  his 
work  with  a  singularly  clear  perception  of  the  crepuscular  skepticism 
which  needs  to  be  dissipated;  and  enters  upon  it  with  manly  and  gener 


•us  fairness  of  statement,  vigor  of  argument,  and  amplitude  of  apposite 
and  convincing  illustration.  His  style  is  in  the  main  so  admirable,  that 
it  may  seem  ungenerous  to  take  exceptions.  Probably  the  excess  of 
ornamentation,  the  overfulness  of  illustration,  the  easy  affluence  of  the 
most  highly  poetic  diction,  and  the  general  gorgeousness  of  rhetoric  will 
secure  a  hearing  for  the  truth  by  persons  whom  it  is  desirable  to  influ- 
ence, who  might  not  be  attracted  by  an  ordinary  book. 

From  the  //nurs  at  Home. 

The  decidedly  oratorical  style  will  serve  to  make  the  essays,  incisive- 
eloquent,  and  eminently  philosophical  as  we  acknowledge  them  to  be— all 
the  more  -widely  popular  and  useful. 

From  the  Religious  Herald. 
Cogent  argument  is  so  lighted  up  with  brilliant  illustration,  as  to  make 
Interesting  the  profoundest  thoughts. 

From  the  Christian  Union.    Rev.  H.  W.  Beecher. 

The  author,  who,  in  Eccc  Cozlum,  established  a  reputation  for  that  rare 
combination  of  excellencies— fi-rvid  rhetoric,  scientific  accuracy,  and  com- 
mon sense — has  produced  auother  book  designed  to  defend  and  illustrate 
the  doctrine  of  Theism.  It  is  like  breathing  mountain  air  to  feel  this 
man's  earnestness;  it  is  a  true  mental  tonic.  One  sees  instantly  that  he 
is  able-souled,  that  he  can  push  and  climb  without  getting  short  of 
breath;  and  it  is  almost  a  foregone  conclusion,  after  reading  the  first 
chapter,  that  one  must  either  stride  with  him  to  his  high  conclusion,  or 
part  company  before  starting.  This  unequivocal  earnestness  and  power 
display  themselves  at  the  outset ;  great  heart  is  warmed  up  to  begin  with ; 
bo  that  one  is  almost  inclined  to  distrust  a  leader  who  has  so  much  the  air 
of  a  partisan.  The  face  set  like  a  flint  does  not  wait  to  be  struck  to  emit 
its  spark3,  but  glows  with  a  fiery  zeal  which  inflames  everything  it  looks 
upon.  Yet,  no  candid  reader  will  say  that  Dr.  Burr  is  dogmatic;  he 
only  plies  error  with  weapons  for  which  infidelity  has  claimed  a  patent 
right.  No  one  who  reads  this  first  volume,  will  wish  that  the  author  had 
written  less  or  otherwise  than  he  has. 

From  the  Advance. 

The  previous  work  entitled  Ecce  Cozlum,  received  the  highest  commend, 
ation  from  the  most  competent  judges.  The  present  volume  will  still  fur- 
ther augment  the  reputation  of  the  author  as  a  thinker  and  writer.  lie 
puts  the  Atheistic  hypothesis  to  severe  and  annihilating  tests;  fully  meet- 
ing its  objections  and  cavils.  The  arguments  of  this  work  are  not  only 
cogent,  but  are  expressed  in  a  lucid,  glowing,  and  eloquent  style;  and  the 
book  entitles  the  writer  to  a  position  among  our  best  religious  authors- 


Fru     ~ev.  Edwin  Hall,  D.D.,  Professor  in  Auburn  Tlicologica*  Seminary 

I  hjve  read  the  work  with  constantly  increasing  satisfaction  and  delight 
Tt  is  entirely  worthy  of  the  author  of  Ecce  Calum  and  of  its  subject.  So 
far  as  my  reading  extends— and  I  have  long  endeavored  to  read  in  that  de- 
partment whatever  I  could  lay  my  hands  on  that  promised  to  give  me 
light— I  regard  it  as  the  most  original  and  valuable  contribution  to  the 
subject,  which  the  age  has  produced.  I  shall  wait  with  longing  for  the 
second  volume.  In  the  meantime,  I  hope  the  work  may  have  a  circula- 
tion as  extensive  as  its  worth  deserves.  If  i+  were  left  for  me  to  fix  that 
desert,  there  should  not  be  a  library  or  a  family  in  the  land  without  it. 
From  the  Watchman  and  Reflector. 

The  thousands  of  readers  of  "Ecce  Coelum"  have  not  got  fairly  over  the 
feeling  of  astonishment  and  admiration  which  the  perusal  of  that  remark- 
able book  brought  to  them,  before  another  of  equal  merit  from  the  same 
author  is  announced.  "Pater  Mundi,"  we  are  confident,  will  lessen  noth- 
ing of  the  high  character  which  Dr.  Burr  has  won  as  an  acute  and  accu- 
rate thinker,  an  accomplished  scholar,  a  brilliant  rhetorician,  and  a 
humble,  childlike  believer  in  God  and  His  revelation.  The  purpose  of  the 
author  is  to  defend  and  illustrate  Theism  and  Christianity  from  the  side  of 
Modern  Science.  There  is  a  wonderful  candor  in  the  entire  process  of  ar- 
gumentation. Nothing  is  assumed  beyond  what  the  eyes  of  man  behold 
and  his  reason  assents  to.  The  conclusion,  without  being  asserted,  is  irre- 
sistibly forced  into  one's  own  view,  and  wins  acceptance  from  the  thought- 
ful, reasonable  soul.  The  eloquence  of  some  of  these  passages  respecting 
the  fatherhood  of  God  is  overwhelming  in  effect.  We  earnestly  com- 
mend the  book  to  the  careiul  study  of  our  so-called  scientific  men  who  are 
trying  hard  to  rule  a  personal  God  out  of  the  universe.  We  wish,  too, 
that  every  young  man  in  the  nation  would  read  these  pr.ges.  We  are  sure 
that  nothing  more  fascinating  in  interest  and  really  healthful  and  elevat- 
ing in  influence  can  be  found  among  all  the  books  of  the  day.  The  book 
is  handsomely  printed  by  Nichols  &  Noyes  of  this  city. 
From  the  Sunday  School  Times. 

This  volume  is  an  eloquent  and  unanswerable  protest  against  modern 
atheism  in  all  its  forms.  "Modern  science  testifying  to  the  Heavenly 
Father,''  is  the  author's  secondary  title,  and  it  describes  accurately  the 
course  and  object  of  his  argument.  His  methods  of  presenting  the  sub- 
ject, however,  are  entirely  original,  and  are  wonderfully  effective.  The 
ivork  is  particularly  opportune.  There  are  in  all  our  congregations 
thoughtful,  cultivated,  quiet  men,  whose  faith  has  been  shaken  by  the  bold 
assumptions  of  infidel  scientists.  Dr.  Burr's  book  is  just  suited  to  restore 
such  persons  to  their  equilibrium.    It  is  written  in  a  most  attractive  stylo 


and  6hows  a  masculine  vigor  of  thought  that  carnot  fail  to  command  r» 
Bpect. 

From  the  Theological  Eclectic.    Professors  Day,  Schaff,  etc. 

We  have  already  spoken  of  the  able  work  entitled  Ecce  Caelum,  in  terms 
of  high  commendation.    The  present  work  by  the  same  author  exhibits 
the  same  power  of  comprehensive  grouping  and  vivid  presentation,  and 
abounds  iu  great  thoughts  freshly  put. 
From  Pev.  Mark  Hopkins,  D.D..  L.L.D.,  President  of  Williams  College. 

I  am  greatly  indebted  to  the  author  of  Pater  Mundi.  It  is  a  freth  and 
powerful  work.  If  any  commendation  from  me  will  aid  its  circulation, 
it  is  freely  given. 

From  C.  H.  Balsbaugh,  Pa. 

Certainly  this  is  a  book  to  stop  the  mouth  of  skeptics.  It  seems  to  me 
that  never  was  atheism  in  its  protean  lorms  more  squarely  met  on  its  own 
ground,  and  never  more  clearly  discomfited  with  its  own  weapons.  No 
two  links  of  its  argument  are  left  together.  The  author  has  triumphantly 
vindicated  the  title  of  his  book.  Its  matter  and  style  appeal  to  both  our 
innate  susceptibility  to  truth,  and  our  sense  of  the  beautiful.  In  my  view, 
never  did  logic  and  poetry  more  heartily  embrace  each  other;  never  did 
beauty  smile  more  divinely  on  the  face  of  the  sternest  facts. 
From  the  New  York  Evening  Post. 

The  clear  and  beautiful  logic,  and  the  crystal  style  of  Ecce  Ccelum,  fas- 
cinated religious  minds  everywhere  in  this  country.  This  book  is  written 
by  the  same  perspicuous  pen.  That  it  is  in  the  form  of  lectures,  rather 
improves  it  than  otherwise.  The  special  aim  of  the  author  is  to  wrest 
from  the  wild  materials  of  this  day  the  powerful  sceptre  of  science,  which 
they  have  seemed  to  wield.  All  the  teachings  of  science  and  nature 
point  to  the  "Father  of  the  "World."  This  book  is  one  calculated  to 
strengthen  the  faith  of  professors  of  religion,  and  to  lead  captive  young 
minds  straying  into  error.  We  ought  to  mention  in  closing,  the  beautiful 
typography  of  the  book.  Published  by  Nichols  &  Noyes. 
From  the  Evening  Wisconsin,  Milwaukee. 

The  style  is  clear,  and  always  strong  and  forcible  in  an  unusual  degree 
while  many  passages  rise  to  great  beauty  and  eloquence.  Seldom  have  we 
read  anything  upon  the  subject  of  Christian  evidence  that  was  so  enter- 
taining, so  instructive,  and  so  satisfactory  as  this  book.  It  is  the  offspring, 
of  a  vigorous  intellect,  and  it  is  a  most  valuable  addition  to  religious  cul- 
ture. 

From  the  Christian  Recorder,  Philadelphia. 

So  charmed  are  we  with  this  magnificent  production  of  Dr.  Burr's,  thai 
really  we  scarce  know  where  to  begin  its  praise.    Its  excellence  is  uniform 


Lecture  first  and  lucture  eigLth  equally  demand  admiration.  So  every  p:.r1 
of  each  lecture.  The  chain  of  gold  is  not  only  complete,  but  every  link  is 
complete.  The  Colonnade  is  not  only  symmetrical,  but  its  minute  carv- 
ings are  perfect.  To  quote  from  it  to  our  own  satisfaction,  would  be  to 
quote  the  whole  book,  but  we  remember  that  Messrs.  Nichols  &  Noyes,  the 
publishers,  have  a  copyright. 

How  majestically  does  the  author  of  Ecce  Coelum  send  forth  his 
thoughts  into  the  world !  In  majesty  do  they  stride  forth  either  to  con- 
quer, to  convince,  or  to  woo.  Now  as  a  mailed  warrior  are  they  seen,  fully 
panopled  from  head  to  foot,  and  crushing  by  the  strength  of  his  argu- 
ments every  foe— crushing  every  atheistic  shield,  and  helmet,  and  breast- 
plate. On  almost  every  page  of  Pater  Mundi,  these  all-crushing  arguments 
are  to  be  met— on  almost  every  page  we  gee  victims  lying  mangled  and 
bleeding. 

We  do  not  know  that  the  author  of  Pater  Mundi  lays  claim  to  the  po- 
etic gift;  and  yet  has  he  given  us  a  sublime  Didactic  Poem.  Not  in  verse, 
is  it  given;  it  is  neither  Dactylic,  Anapaestic,  Iambic,  nor  Trochaic. 
But  poetic  imagination  shines  on  every  page.  Untrammeled  by  rule, 
and  enjoying  a  freedom  that  the  utmost  poetic  license  could  not  allow, 
the  author  has  given  us  a  poem  infinitely  sublimer  than  could  possibly 
have  been  done  in  any  other  form.  Would  that  we  could  give  our  read- 
ers the  concluding  pages  of  Lecture  VII.  Such  poetic  thought!  Such 
beauty  of  expression!  Such  smoothness!  Such  harmony!  Words  an- 
swer to  words,  and  sentence  to  sentence,  with  such  sweetness  that  one 
glides  along  to  the  conclusion,  as  smoothly  as  a  New  England  sleigh,  and 
as  merrily  as  its  ringing  bells. 

From  the  Norwich  Bulletin, 

It  will  be  a  groat  advantage  to  the  reader  of  this  work  to  have  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Dr.  Burr's  previous  volume,  "Ecce  Coelum,"  as  thus  many 
of  the  references  in  "Pater  Mundi"  will  be  the  more  intelligible  and  vivid. 
The  quality  of  the  new  work  is  in  all  respects  admirable.  Dr.  Burr  hai 
a  wonderful  enthusiasm,  always  fresh  and  intense.  He  is  full  of  his  sub- 
ject. He  has  the  faculty  of  so  treating  profound  and  sublime  themes,  aa 
to  bring  them  easily  to  the  comprehension  of  all.  He  has  a  fervid  style, 
whose  richness  seems  inexhaustible.  He  has  great  fertility  in  argument, 
and  presents  his  suggestions  with  rare  simplicity  and  force.  The  volume 
will  go  far  to  combat  the  sophistries  of  Atheism,  both  in  uncultured  minds 
and  in  those  of  strong  logical  powers.  We  cannot  too  highly  commend 
it,  and  we  predict  that  it  will  find  a  place  in  every  well  stocked  religious 
library. 

From  the  Standard,  Chicago,  111. 

If  any  one  should  infer  from  the  title  of  this  book  that  it  is  a  heavy  and 
prosy  dissertation,  he  would  be  »«tonished  on  looking  over  its  pages 


frothing  could  be  further  from  the  truth.  The  author  is  an  enthusiast,  one 
of  those  who  have  not  "discovered  that  one  must  be  indifferent  in  order  to 
be  fair."  The  book  is  fresh,  earnest,  and  eloquent,  and  we  felt  its  strong 
spell  before  reading  a  dozen  pages.  The  statement  of  arguments  is  admira- 
bly clear,  the  development  of  them  is  natural  and  impressive,  and  there  ia 
displayed  a  wonderful  power  in  massing  facts  so  as  to  give  their  full  and 
combined  effect. 

From  the  Chicago  Tribune. 

This  work  in  some  respects  is  very  remarkable.  It  is  not  only  compact 
In  argument,  and  forcible  and  clear  in  statement,  but  it  is  also  absolutely 
brilliant  and  sparkling  in  manner,  and  rich  and  copious  in  illustration. 
Judging  only  from  the  one  volume  before  us,  we  should  pronounce  it  as 
one  of  the  most  remarkable  and  fascinating  books  of  the  day. 
From  the  Orleans  Republican,  Albion,  N.  Y. 

The  author's  premises  are  bold,  and  his  line  of  argument  clear,  forcible 
and  persuasive;  shirkiug  nothing,  anticipating,  and  answering  objec- 
tions with  equal  fairness.  The  work  is  calm,  liberal,  and  large  thoughted ; 
full  of  admirable  logic,  and  profound  reasoning;  and  the  last  three  lec- 
tures, especially,  are  grand  with  beautiful  and  terrible  imagery,  exquisite 
poetry,  and  striking  allusions  to  those  mysterious  facts  and  forces  of  na- 
ture which  startle  and  awe  believer  and  unbeliever  alike;  and  his  conclu- 
sion is  singularly  suggestive  and  powerful, 

From  Rev.  Austin  Phelps,  D.D..  Professor  in  Andover  Theological 
Seminary. 

I  wish  to  thank  the  author  for  "  Pater  Mundi."  Not  that  it  needs  any 
commendation  from  me :  but  I  cannot  but  be  grateful  to  any  man  who  helpa 
me  to  a  new  depth  or  vividness  of  conception  of  God;  and  this  you  have 
done  by  your  book.  I  am  specially  impressed  by  the  power  with  which  it 
draws  the  great  alternative,  —  a  God  benevolent,  or  a  God  malignant.  The 
reductio  ad  absurdum  is  fearfully  overwhelming;  and  the  recoil  with  which 
one  springs  back  from  it  gives  one  a  lodgment  and  a  resting-place  in  the 
Infinite  Love  which  no  gentler  discipline  could  secure  so  well.  This  vigor 
of  religious  sensibility  in  your  works  charms  me.  We  need  it  greatly  in  on; 
Christian  literature,  to  supplement  alike  the  wiry  intellect  of  which  we  have 
enough,  and  the  emotive  softness  of  which,  perhaps,  we  have  a  little  more. 
From  the  American  Baptist. 

The  author  has  a  strong  and  vigorous  style,  and  a  power  of  grasping 
and  grouping  great  truths,  which  make  all  that  he  utters  luminous  and 
convincing.  Though  prepared  specially  for  educated  men,  they  are  adapt- 
ed to  all  readers,  have  no  abstruseness  of  diction,  no  intricate,  far-fetched 
or  dubious  arguments.  The  author  will  impart  no  small  measure  of  the 
Indignation  he  feels  towards  atheism,  concealing  itself  under  the  name  ol 
science,  to  those  who  read  his  book.,  and  we  trust  it  may  have  a  very  wide 
r'rculation. 


From  The  Neio  Ertfjlanuer. 

The  author  of  Ecce  Coelum  could  uot  well  be  expected  to  write  a  dull 
book  on  any  subject,  much  less  one  in  which  God  and  nature  were  the 
chief  topic.  But  whether  he  would  be  able  to  clothe  a  skeleton  of 
a  two-volume  argument  for  Theism  —  often  so  dry  and  prim  in  other 
hands  — with  the  flesh  and  muscle,  the  life  and  beauty,  that  charm  us  in 
Parish  Astronomy,  could  only  be  shown  conclusively  by  the  production  oi 
a  work  like  that  before  us.  Pater  Mundi,  will,  by  the  glow  and  magnet- 
ism of  its  rhetoric,  and  the  enthusiastic  earnestness  of  its  tone,  as  well  as 
the  strength  of  its  argument,  be  sure  to  command  everywhere,  apprecia- 
tive and  admiring  readers,  and  prove,  we  trust,  of  special  value  to  those  who 
are  inclined  to  regard  science  as  hostile  to  religion.  Its  logic  is  vitalized 
and  made  effective  by  the  force  and  richness  of  the  illustrations  drawn 
from  the  various  fields  of  science.  It  is  these  all  glowing  often  with  poetic 
fervor,  that  rivet  the  attention  at  once,  and  carry  the  reader  on  insensibly 
from  topic  to  topic.  In  some  of  the  lectures,  indeed,  the  argument  as- 
sumes the  elevation  and  almost  the  form  of  a  grand  poem.  The  sixth,  for 
example,  like  a  sublime  ode,  returns,  strophe  by  strophe,  with  each  point 
made  in  the  argument,  to  the  same  exultant  chorus,  which  becomes  at 
once  a  quod  erat  demonstrandum  to  the  understanding,  and  an  inspi- 
ration of  faith  to  the  heart. 

The  second  volume  promises  to  be  even  more  attractive  than  the  first ;  for  it 
is  to  be  still  more  replete  with  the  marvels  and  sublimities  of  the  sciences 
as  illustrative  of  the  argument.  It  is  too  much  forgotten  by  many  that  God 
may  be  studied  in  flower  and  forest,  in  storm  and  star,  and  in  the  soul  of 
man,  as  well  as  in  Moses  and  the  prophets.  The  glowing  pages  of  "  Pater 
Mundi,"  teach  impressively  that  the  God  of  Revelation  is  the  God  of 
Nature  as  well. 

From  the  Methodist. 

The  many  gratified  readers  of"  Ecce  Ccelura."  will  welcome  this  new 
and  important  work  of  Dr.  Burr.  It  is  a  book  for  the  times.  Natural 
Theology  can  no  longer  retain  its  old  form :  the  progress,  not  only  of  Sci- 
ence but  of  speculative  thought,  demands  a  thorough  revision,  "Pater 
Mundi "  meets  this  demand  with  masterly  ability. 

From  the  American  Presbyterian  Jtevicw, 

A  new  work  by  the  author  of"  Ecce  Ccelum  "  is  sure  to  attract  unusual 
attention;  nor  will  expectation  be  disappointed.  Dr.  Burr  is  an  original 
and  independent  thinker,  and  he  writes  in  a  style  of  singular  freshness 
and  rhetorical  beauty.  His  book  is  timely.  Though  popular  in  its  ad- 
dress, it  sacrifices  nothing  to  effect,  and  is  wholly  free  from  that  super  li- 
cialty  which  is  usually  found  in  the  attempt  to  reduce  the  conclusions  of 
science  to  the  level  of  a  popular  audiance.  It  discusses  with  masterly  abil- 
ity the  testimonies  of  Modern  Science  to  the  being  of  a  God,  and  defends 
Theism  from  the  attacks  of  skeptical  scierce  in  a  bold  and  critical  spirit 


worthy  of  all  praise.  It  is  a?  profoundly  religious  a3  it  is  thoroughly  sc; 
entific.  While  it  freely  accepts  the  results  of  the  freest  investigations,  it  ably 
argues  that  there  is  no-thing  in  one  of  these  to  shake  the  christian's  faith, 
but  much  to  confirm  it.  The  work  cannot  fail  to  hare  an  important  influ- 
ence on  Natural  Theology— bringing  it  into  harmony  with  the  progress  of 
Science  and  speculative  philosophy,  and  arming  it  with  a  new  power  of 
demonstration. 

From  the  Princeton  Review. 
Dr.  Burr,  known  to  us  in  his  youth  as  a  modest  and  studious  lad,  and 
since,  as  the  faithful  and  unpretending  pastor  of  a  rural  congregation,  has 
suddenly  burst  on  our  vision  as  an  author  of  the  first  mark  in  the  highest 
realms  of  thought,  and  as  a  leading  defender  of  precious  truth  against  the 
assaults  of  scientific  pretenders  and  pretentious  sciolists.  He  calls  to  mind 
the  days  when  the  great  New  England  divines,  the  Edwardses,  Bellamy, 
Backus,  Smalley,  Emmons,  were  pastors  of  agricultural  congregations. 

The  universal  approbation  of  Pater  Mundi  and  the  previous  volume,  by 
the  press  and  by  christian  thinkers  of  the  highest  reputation,  we  find 
borne  out  by  actual  inspection.  Real  science  is  proved  to  be  the  hand- 
maid of  true  religion,  in  a  series  of  discussions  which  evince  a  masterly 
comprehension  of  the  issues  involved— a  thorough  acquaintance  with 
modern  science  and  its  relations  to  religion— the  whole  in  a  style  clear 
and  simple,  vivid  and  graphic.  We  think  the  quiet  of  a  country  charge 
more  propitious  to  thorough  study  and  deep  thinking,  than  the  din  and 
whirl  of  metropolitan  excitements. 

From  Prof.  D.  C.  Gilman,  Tale  College. 
I  feel  moved  to  express  my  hearty  appreciation  of  the  service  the  author 
of"  Pater  Mundi"  is  rendering  to  the  world  by  the  publication  of  these 
earnest,  brilliant  and  impressive  discourses. 

Front  Hon.  Henri/  Z,.   Ditozs,  M.    C. 
The  pleasure  with  which  I  read  aloud  to  my  family  "  Iicce  Coelum"  ha9 
prepared  me  for  an  increased  delight  and  profit  in  reading  "  Pater  Mundi. " 
I  am  very  proud  of  the  author,  and  rejoice  in  his  growing  fame. 
From  Our  Monthly,  Cincinnati,  Ohio. 
We  are  very  glad  to  welcome  and  commend  this  book.    The  author  does, 
with  singular  ability,  what  he  proposes  to  do.     His  trumpet  utters  no  un- 
certain sound.    There  is  no  danger  of  any  one  mistaking  his  meaning. 
We  think  it  high  time  the  arrogant  assumptions  and  speculations  of  some 
scientific  men  in  the  interest  of  infidelity  and  atheism  were  exposed,  and 
the  harmony  of  all  true  science  and  revelation  vindicated,  made  more  ap- 
parent, and  presented  in  some  popular  form.    This  Dr.  Burr  is  doing,  and 
the  first  installment  of  his  work  we  have  in  this  series  of  lectures.    That 
they  will  be  found  interesting  and  convincing  we  need  not  say  to  those 
who  have  read  "  Eece  Coelum." 


AD  FIDEM; 

OK, 

PARISH  EVIDENCES   OF   THE   BIBLE. 

BY  THE  AUTHOR   OP 

UECCE  CXELUM"  AND   "PATER  MUNDI." 

ENLARGED    EDITION. 

Price  $2. 00 Sent  post-paid  on  receipt  of  price,  by 

NO  YES,  HOLMES,  &  CO., 

117   Washington   Street,   Boston. 


"  Ad  Fidem  "  proposes  to  do  for  the  Evidences  of  the  Christian 
Religion  what  "  Ecce  Ccelum  "  aims  to  do  for  Astronomy.  It  pro- 
poses to  bring  these  Evidences,  without  any  sacrifice  of  scholarly 
accuracy,  luminously  and  effectively  within  the  reach  of  ordinary 
minds. 

The  attention  of  PASTORS  is  especially  called  to  this  work.  Unbe- 
lief is  trying  hard  to  popularize  itself.  The  most  taking  forms  of 
literature  are  being  used  to  insinuate  doubt,  and  detach  the  masses 
from  Church,  and  Sabbath,  and  Bible.  Unless  the  shepherds  of  the 
people  bestir  themselves,  a  great  calamity  is  at  hand.  They  must 
see  to  it  that  what  the  friends  of  natural  science  are  so  finely  doing 
for  it,  be  done  also  for  sacred  science  —  that  the  Christian  Evidences 
be  brought  to  the  people  in  those  forms  which  alone  are  suited  to 
interest  and  convince  them.  Cannot  "Ad  Fidem"  help?  If  the 
judgment  of  men  of  the  first  eminence  is  worth  anything,  this  is 
just  the  book  needed  for  free  circulation  in  the  parishes. 


EXTRACTS  FROM  NOTICES. 

From  Jicv.  Mark  Hopkins,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.,  President  of  Williams  College. 
This  elegant  volume  seems  to  me  admirably  admirably  adapted    for  its 
purpose.     I  am  sure  it  cannot  fail  to  do  great  good  wherever  it  may  go. 

From  Rev.  Howard  Crosby,  D.  D.,  Chancellor  of  the  University  of  New 
York. 
As  a  Christian  minister,  I  thank  the  author  of  "Ad  Fidem,"  ab  into 
pectore,  not  only  for  that  book,  but  for  all  that  he  has  done  iv.  his  three 
noble  works  for  the  cause  of  truth.  If  the  sympathy  and  approbation  of 
his  brethren  all  over  the  land  is  any  reward  for  his  labors,  that  reward  he 
certainly  has. 


From  Rev.  Roswell  D.  Ilitchcock,  D.  D.,  Professor  in  Union  Theological 

Seminary. 
Its  bright,  fresh,  vigorous  rhetoric,  is  one  of  the  least  of  its  merits. 
Evidently  the  author  has  himself  felt,  and  so  has  justly  measured,  the 
"  oppositions  cf  science  "  which  he  combats.  Only  so  can  we  get  the  con- 
fidence of  thinking  men,  who  are  in  trouble  about  the  BiUe.  He  does  well 
to  make  so  much  of  the  moral  temper  of  the  inquirer.  I  often  think  that 
the  apologetic  literature  of  the  Church,  from  first  to  last,  has  done  little 
moie  than  confirm  and  comfort  those  who  were  on  the  right  side,  and 
wished  to  remain  there. 

From  Professor  Taylor  Lewis,  LL.  Z>.,  Professor  in  Union  College. 

I  regard  it  as  a  very  valuable  contribution  to  our  religious  literature,  and 
well  worthy  of  the  commendation  the  other  works  of  the  author  have 
received.  It  is  cheering  to  find  that  the  many  attacks  on  Christianity, 
under  the  names  of  science  and  free  religion,  are  calling  out  so  many  books 
of  intrinsic  excellence.  The  great  clamor  of  the  enemy  sometimes  causes 
me  to  feel  depressed;  but  such  works  as  "Ad  Fidem  "  assure  me  that 
there  is  power  in  the  Church,  both  spiritual  and  intellectual. 

From  Rev.  Austin  Phelps,  D.  Z>.,  Professor  in  Andover  Theological  Semi- 
nary. 
"Ad  Fidem"  has  given  me  great  satisfaction.  It  has  been  a  greatly 
needed  volume  for  a  long  while.  What  else  have  we  in  our  literature  on  the 
Evidences  which  puts  sound  logic  into  readable  style,  so  as  to  command  the 
popular  interest  ?  I  know  of  scarcely  anything.  Pastors  are  hard  pressed, 
if  I  may  judge  from  letters  of  inquiry  which  sometimes  come  to  me,  to  find 
something  which  their  inquiring  young  people  will  read  by  the  side  of  the 
fascinating  "  Seers"  of  the  Concord  school.  The  author  of  "  Ad  Fidem  " 
will  find  many  to  thank  him  for  supplying  the  want. 

From  Hon.  Jared  B.  Arbuthnot,  LL.  D. 
Those  who  have  known  the  author  as  one  of  the  ablest  mathematicians 
of  the  country;  as  a  close  student  for  years,  and,  almost  to  the  sacrifice  of 
life,  of  the  profoundest  branches  of  science;  as  a  contributor  to  scientific 
journals  of  papers  bristling  with  the  utmost  resources  of  the  Calculus;  and, 
latterly,  as  the  author  of  a  book  on  Astronomy,  which  has  gone  into  many 
countries,  drawn  unprecedented  eulogy  from  first  scholars,  and  done  more 
to  make  the  most  difficult  of  sciences  intelligible  and  impressive  to  the  gen- 
eral public  than  any  other  work  ever  written,  will  not  expect  to  find  him 
treating  any  subject  superficially.  They  will  not  find  him  treating  the  Evi- 
dences in  this  manner.  No  reader  of  "Ad  Fidem,"  who  is  himself  a  thor- 
ough scholar,  will  fail  to  see  on  every  page  of  this,  as  well  as  of  its  compan- 
ion volumes,  under  a  popular  dress,  the  order,  thoroughness,  immense  force, 
and  severe  accuracy,  as  to  both  thought  and  expression,  of  a  master  in  the 
exact  sciences. 

From  Rev.  A.  P.  Peabody,  D.  D.,  LL.  P.,  Professor  in  Harvard  Univer- 
sity. 
The  author,  or  rather  his  numerous  readers,  should  be  congratulated  on 
his  continued   and   signal  success  in  meeting  the  obtrusive  skepticism  of 
our  times.     His  "  Ad  Fidem,"  in  the  choice  and  arrangement  of  topics,  in 


Its  adaptation  to  existing  needs,  in  soundness  of  reasoning,  and  in  a  vivacity 
and  fervor  which  must  command  unwearied  attention  and  interest,  is  pre- 
cisely the  work  which  the  cause  of  truth  demands.  I  am  heartily  thankful 
to  him  in  behalf  of  the  public  for  his  service  in  the  Gospel. 

From  Rev.  W.  S.  Tyler,  D.  7X,  LL.D.,  Professor  in  Amherst  College. 
Clear  as  the  air,  bright  as  the  sunshine,  refreshing  and  invigorating  as 
the  northern  breezes  of  this  rare  and  beautiful  season.  There  is  in  it  a 
happy  union  of  sound  sense,  good  learning,  personal  experience,  strong  faith, 
and  glowing  eloquence,  which  bears  the  reader  along  as  with  an  irresistible 
current.  I  admire  particularly  its  boldness  and  directness.  While  there  is 
sufficient  moderation  and  prudence  in  stating  the  claims  of  the  religion  of 
the  Bible,  and  the  arguments  by  which  it  is  supported,  there  is  very  little 
of  the  apologetic  tone  —  there  is  no  hesitation  in  appealing  to  the  con- 
science and  common  sense  of  the  unbeliever  himself  as  on  the  side  of  the 
Christian  Revelation. 

I  rejoice  that  the  author  has  been  permitted  and  enabled  to  add  "  Ad 
Fidem  "  to  "  Ecce  Ccelum  "  and  "Pater  Mundi,"  and  thus  to  lengthen  and 
strengthen  the  chain  which  will,  I  trust,  bind  many  to  the  truth. 

From  Rev.  T.  L.  Cuyler,  D.  D.,  in  the  New  York  Evangelist. 
Last  evening  my  congregation  enjoyed  the  intellectual  treat  of  a  brilliant 
discourse,  by  the  author  of  "  Ecce  Ccelum  "  —  that  newly  discovered  star  in 
our  firmament  of  letters,  in  regard  to  whom  so  much  interest  is  now  felt. 
He  is  kinsman  of  President  Burr,  of  Princeton  College,  and  has  devoted 
years  to  scientific  studies.  While  listening  to  him,  it  seemed  as  if  the  frail 
form  of  flesh  was  ready  to  vanish  away,  while  the  inner  soul  was  all  aglow 
with  the  intense  blaze  of  enthusiasm  for  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus.  His 
theme  was  —  "  The  accord  between  the  best  literature  and  learning  and  the 
Word  of  God."  It  was  a  sparkling  chapter  from  his  newly  published  vol- 
ume "  Ad  Fidem."  The  book  abounds  in  sentences  which  are  finished  with 
the  point  of  a  diamond.  Those  who  have  read  "  Ecce  Ccelum  "  will  be 
hungry  for  this  latest  production  of  devout  genius.  The  skeptic  who  can 
read  its  honest  pages  and  not  find  his  infidelity  shaken,  would  hardly  believe 
"though  one  rose  from  the  dead." 

From  the  Rl.  Rev.  Charles  P.  M'llvaine,  D.  D.,  D.  C.  L.,  Bishop  of  Ohio. 
His  admirable  "Ecce  Ccelum"  had  prepared  the  way  in  my  house  for 
its  fit  successor  "  Ad  Fidem."  In  the  range  of  its  argument  and  in  the 
force  of  its  reasoning,  added  to  the  beauty  and  eloquence  of  its  style,  it  is 
calculated  to  be,  under  the  Lord's  grace,  eminently  useful.  The  author 
appeals  to  evidences  which  none  of  the  wisdom  of  the  wise  (of  this  world) 
can  shake. 

From  the  Springfield  Republican. 
"Ad  Fidem"  has  met  with  much  success  —  the  first  edition  of  fifteen 
hundred  copies  being  exhausted  within  four  days  after  publication.     It  is  a 
vigorous  and  fascinating  discussion  of  the  Evidences  of  Christianity. 

From  the  Interior. 
The  previous  works  of  this  author  have  been  widely  read,  and  much  and 
justly  admired.     The  volume  before  us  is  characterized  by  the  same  clear- 
ness  and  raciness,  and  will  be  read  with  interest  by  all  classes. 


From  the  Conyreyalional  Quarterly. 
Dr.  Burr  has  varied  learning  and  remarkable  rhetorical  power.  The 
earnestness  and  vigor  of  his  faith  are  refreshing,  particularly  in  an  atmos- 
phere surcharged  with  a  speculative  and  skeptical  spirit.  "  Ad  Fidetn  "  is 
well  suited  to  relieve  the  doubts  of  the  honest  inquirer,  and  to  strengthen 
the  faith  of  the  believer. 

From  the  Literary  World. 

The  author's  fervor  is  exceedingly  animating;  the  most  indifferent  reader 
cannot  dwell  unmoved  upon  his  vigorous  and  glowing  words;  and  those 
who  reject  his  doctrines,  must  yield  unqualified  admiration  to  the  skill  and 
grace  with  which  they  are  put  forth.  We  have  rarely  fallen  upon  a  pro- 
fessedly theological  composition  so  rich  in  the  genuine  charms  of  rhetoric, 
so  fascinating  and  persuasive  in  the  delicate,  yet  forcible  manipulation  of 
grave  and  sombre  subjects.  Here  is  no  dry  discussion,  no  slow-going  logi- 
cal processes  to  disgust  the  reader  with  theme  and  thesis;  the  discussion  is 
lively,  the  reasoning  pleases  while  it  convinces,  and  the  impassioned  earnest- 
ness of  the  writer  allures  his  readers  into  willing  tutelage,  and  brightens  and 
beautifies  his  whole  work. 

'•  Ad  Fidetn  "  seems  to  us  altogether  admirable.  It  will  bear  and  repay 
careful  reading,  for  there  has  been  no  sacrifice  of  force  to  ornament.  As  a 
presentment  of  the  claims  of  the  Biblical  religion,  in  a  form  at  once  univer- 
sally intelligible  and  universally  attractive,  we  know  of  no  work  which  sur- 
passes "  Ad  Fidem." 

From  the  New  York  Observer. 
"  Ad  Fidem  "  will,  we  believe,  be  greatly  useful.  It  is  admirably  adaptea 
to  subserve  the  purpose  designed.  The  author  has  made  his  mark  as  one 
of  the  ablest  orthodox  writers  of  the  present  clay.  He  is  a  man  of  thought 
and  study,  and  great  power  of  expression.  A  short  time  since  he  burst  on 
the  religious  mind  of  this  country  with  a  work  called  "Ecce  Ccelum."  He 
next  appeared  with  a  volume  entitled  "Pater  Mundi,"  a  profound,  able,  and 
timely  series  of  chapters,  proving  that  science  testifies  to  the  existence  and 
attributes  of  the  Christian's  God.  Modern  professors  of  pure  science  would 
fain  intimate  to  the  world  that  it  is  unscientific  to  believe.  Dr.  Burr  has 
made  a  book  for  these  scientists  and  those  who  have  been  deluded  by  them 
to  study.  It  is  easy  reading,  and  we  recommend  it  to  the  learned  and  un- 
learned unlike.     It  will  do  them  all  good. 

From  the    Christian  at    Work. 

It  is  a  worthy  compeer  of  his  two  previous  volumes.  Rhetorically,  it  is 
most  brilliant.  It  is  full  of  passages  which  break  upon  the  soul  like  a  rev- 
elation, and  in  following  the  line  of  his  arguments,  the  reader  cannot  fail  to 
be  convinced  that  of  a  truth  the  Bible  is  God's  holy  Word. 

We  welcome  it  as  a  most  efficient  helper  in  setting  at  naught  the  efforts 
which  are  being  made  to  cast  contempt  upon  the  sacred  writings. 

From  the  Boston  Journal. 

Another  valuable  addition  to  the  solid  and  beneficial  literature  of  the  day, 

from  the  pen  of  the  well  known  author  of  "Ecce  Ccelum,"  and  the  almost 

equally  admirable  "  Pater  Mundi."      The  present  work  is  a  most  excellent 

one,  calculated  in  every  respect  to  accomplish  great  and  lasting  good.     The 


Evidences  of  the  Christian  Religion  an  brought  within  the  scope  of  average 
intelligences.  The  book  fills  a  most  important  place  in  the  domain  of  mod- 
ern religious  literature.  The  style  is  graphic,  powerful,  and  elegant;  and 
yet  beautifully  simple.  His  arguments,  though  conclusive,  are  within  the 
reach  of  the  unlearned  as  well  as  the  accomplished.  Nothing  hard  or 
pedantic  characterizes  any  one  of  the  sixteen  essays  of  which  "Ad  Fidem  " 
is  composed;  but  the  book  is  pleasant  and  profitable  reading  for  everybody. 

From  the  Methodist. 
Dr.  Burr's  previous  volumes  have  rendered  everything  from  his  pen  wel- 
come to  thoughtful  readers.  His  new  book  consists  of  real  parish  lectures. 
It  is  a  book  of  evidences  skillfully  wrought  out,  and  the  better  for  beinc:  pop- 
ular. The  author  always  presents  a  happy  combination  of  scientific  informa- 
tion with  cogent  logic  and  a  vigorous  style. 

From  the  Religious  Herald. 
We  welcome  another  volume  from  the  vigorous  and  attractive  pen  of  the 
author  of  "Ecce  Ccelum."     For  weight  of  thought,  brilliancy  of  imagina- 
tion, and   force  of  style,  it  will  compare  favorably  with  his  former  works; 
and  this  is  enough  to  insure  for  it  an  extensive  sale. 

From  the  Home  Journal. 
This  book  will  doubtless  attract  more  general  attention  and  be  more 
widely  read  than  any  previous  work  from  his  pen.  The  writer's  scientific 
habit  of  mind  and  familiarity  with  the  whole  field  of  argument  have  enabled 
him  to  give  the  proofs  of  revealed  religion  in  a  clear  and  forcible  style,  in  a 
way  to  aid  many  who  are  seeking  settled  religious  convictions. 

From  the   Watchman  and  Reflector. 

The  author  who,  a  year  or  two  since,  so  greatly  startled  the  reading  pub- 
lic by  vaulting  into  a  first  place  among  Christian  apologists,  is  likely  to  hold 
what  he  so  splendidly  won.  This  last  book  is,  like  the  others  which  preceded 
it,  in  the  interest  of  the  Christian  Faith.  The  pages  sparkle  with  life.  Its 
poetic  fervor,  its  wonderful  massing  of  facts,  its  brilliancy  of  illustration, 
its  personal  appeals,  its  resistless  conclusions,  make  up  a  book  which  will 
not  allow  the  most  prejudiced  or  indifferent  reader  to  lay  it  aside,  when  once 
it  is  fairly  begun,  until  the  last  page  is  turned.  It  is  the  most  successful 
attempt  which  has  yet  been  made  at  popularizing  the  Evidences  of  the 
Christian  Faith. 

From  the  Western  World. 

The  work  is  spoken  well  and  widely  of  as  a  strong  defense  of  Christianity 
against  the  growing  materialism  of  the  age.  Its  author  has  a  high  reputa- 
tion as  one  of  the  most  powerful  orthodox  writers  of  the  country. 

From  the  Evangelist. 
It  presents  the  various  branches  of  evidence  in  a  very  eloquent  and  effect- 
ive manner.     Moreover,  it  is  peculiarly  appropriate  to  the  present  state  of 
the  religious  world — establishing  the  foundations  of  faith  in  the  Word  of 
God,  and  vindicating  the  supernatural  character  of  the  Gospel  of  C  list. 


6 

From  the  Scottish  An.erican  Journal. 
The  author  of  «  Ad  Fidem  "  is  already  famous  to  the  world  by  his  admlr 
able  little  book,  "  Ecce  Ccelum."  His  books  are  probably  more  highly 
and  universally  extolled  than  those  of  any  other  author  —  not  excepting  the 
author  of  "Ecce  Homo  "  himself.  "Ad  Fidem"  will  -undoubtedly  add  to 
Dr.  Burr's  fame.  It  is  a  popular  religious  writing  of  the  highest  order,  that 
can  be  read  by  the  masses,  and  that  will  not  fail  to  accomplish  a  good  mis- 
sion. This  book  of  itself  is  calculated  to  turn  the  tide  against  infidelity  in 
favor  of  the  good  old-fashioned  belief  in  the  Scripture  as  the  Word  of  God. 

From  the  Utica  Observer. 
Dr.  Burr's  "Ecce  Ccelum"  and  "Pater  Mundi  "  have  placed  him 
among  the  foremost  of  modern  contributors  to  religious  literature.  As  a 
Christian  writer,  his  characteristics  are  great  clearness,  boldness,  and  en- 
thusiasm. He  seizes  the  sword  of.  argument,  and  gives  no  quarter  to 
limping  skepticism  that  quibbles  over  the  Bible  as  a  book  whose  Divine 
origin  is  undemonstrable.  His  arguments  are  presented  with  remarkable 
vigor  and  they  cannot  fail  to  strengthen  the  faith  of  the  weak,  and  to  "  con- 
found the  foolish,"  who  accept  as  confirmed  a  thousand  facts  upon  far  less 
evidence  than  we  have  of  the  truth  of  the  Bible  as  the  very  Word  of  God. 
It  would  be  difficult  to  find  a  volume  of  three  hundred  and  fifty  pages  of 
recent  publication  in  which  is  combined  more  of  sound  logic  and  religious 
fervor,  or  which  is  likely  to  result  in  greater  good  than  this.  Dr.  Burr  is  a 
man  for  the  weak  Christian  to  lean  upon;  for  the  strong  and  confident  one 
to  esteem  and  admire,  if  not  indeed  to  reverence. 

From  the  Commercial  Advertiser. 
This  is  a  very  welcome  book  from  the  pen  of  the  distinguished  author  of 
•  Ecce  Ccelum  "  and  "  Pater  Mundi."  It  is  written  at  just  the  right 
time  —  at  the  time  when  the  young  men  of  the  country  show  an  unwilling- 
ness to  "endure  sound  doctrine."  Dr.  Burr  is  a  bold  champion  of  the 
divine  origin  of  revealed  truth,  and  he  handles  skepticism  without  gloves. 
Let  those  who  desire  to  know  the  truth  read  such  a  book  as  this.  We  do 
not  fear  the  attacks  of  "scientists  "  upon  revelation  if  those  who  read  the 
speculations  of  science  will,  at  the  same  time,  exert  themselves  to  reconcile 
history  with  Scripture  prediction. 

From  the  Advance. 
A  quite  unanimous  approval  has  greeted  Dr.  Burr  in  his  labors  as  an 
author,  as  regards  the  value  of  his  thoughts  and  the  attraction  of  his  style. 
The  present  work  will  meet  with  favor  from  those  who  appreciate  the  wants 
of  our  time.  It  aims  to  present  the  evidence  in  favor  of  the  Bible,  not  in  a 
dry,  professional  way,  nor  in  a  hot,  polemic  spirit,  but  with  force  and  fresh- 
ness, with  appreciation  of  doubts  and  difficulties,  and  with  the  confidence  of 
Btrong  conviction.  The  author  has  much  tact  in  coming  at  his  subject, 
and  his  arguments  are  ingeniously  constructed,  and  skillfully  marshaled. 
He  keeps  in  view,  also,  a  practical  result,  and  aims  to  impress  the  conscience 
as  well  as  to  enlighten  the  mind,  insisting  ever  that  the  most  solemn  respon- 
sibility attaches  to  treatment  of  this  great  subject.  We  like  the  book,  and 
wish  it  a  large  circulation. 


From  the  Syracuse  Journal. 
Dr.  Burr,  the  author,  is  a  man  in  the  prime  of  life,  a  lecturer  in  Amherst 
College,  a  man  of  profound  scientific  learning,  patient  study,  and  withal  an 
earnest  pastor,  whose  soul  is  aglow  with  enthusiam  for  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus.  His  previous  works,  "  Ecce  Ccelum  "  and  "Pater  Mundi,"  have 
created  a  new  sentiment  in  regard  to  religious  subjects,  and  won  for  their 
author  unbounded  praise.  They  are  notable  books  for  the  times,  warm, 
alive,  eloquent.  "  Ad  Fidem  "  follows  the  path  they  marked  out.  In  the 
words  of  .Rev.  Dr.  Cuyler,  "  The  skeptic  who  can  read  its  honest  pages  and 
not  find  his  infidelity  shaken,  would  hardly  believe  '  though  one  rose  from 
the  dead.'  " 

From  the  North  American   Gazelle. 

The  line  of  late  publications  indicated  by  "  Ecce  Ccelum,"  "  Ecce  Homo," 
etc.,  the  first  of  which  is  from  the  same  pen  that  now  gives  "  Ad  Fidem  " 
to  the  world,  can  all  be  traced  to  the  recent  disputations  in  Europe  over 
religious  fundamentals.  Of  "Ecce  Ccelum"  we  can  hardly  speak  too 
highly  to  express  the  views  of  those  concurring  in  its  doctrine.  It  is  thor- 
oughly orthodox,  compact,  and  thoughtful,  and  is  a  scientific  as  well  as  a 
religious  essay;  a  work  not  unworthy  to  class  with  the  great  efforts  of 
Chalmers.  In  half  a  dozen  lectures  it  formulates  more  of  the  philosophy  of 
orthodox  faith  than  can  be  found  in  a  century  of  ordinary  sermonizino-. 
This  is  the  concurrent  testimony  of  those  whose  opinions  cannot  be  gain- 
say ed. 

"  Ad  Fidem  "  consists  of  a  series  of  parish  lectures,  intended  to  settle 
the  argument  in  behalf  of  the  Bible.  Of  the  execution  of  the  labor  too 
much  can  hardly  be  said.  There  is  such  an  amount  of  plastic  learning, 
close  logic,  and  happy  illustration,  as  justifies  comparison  with  the  astro- 
nomical discourses  of  Chalmers.  Even  the  renown  of  Jonathan  Edwards, 
so  immovably  crowned,  is  brought  to  mind  by  the  closeness  of  the  scientific 
analysis  and  synthesis  used.  And  yet  the  whole  is  lucent  to  any  ordinary 
understanding.  The  work  takes  instant  rank  with  the  foremost  theological 
contributions  of  the  day,  and  must  exercise  great  influence. 

From  the   Christian  Recorder. 

To  secure  the  ready  reading  of  "  Ad  Fidem  "  by  those  who  have  been  for- 
tunate to  read  "Pater  Mundi,"  it  is  only  necessary  to  inform  them  that  it 
is  from  the  pen  of  the  same  charming  writer.  It  is  a  handsome  book,  and 
can  be  read  with  the  most  sensible  joy. 

It  ought  to  be  a  question  with  thoughtful  men,  how  these  books  of  Dr. 
Burr  can  be  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  people.  We  have  not  read  "  Ecce 
Ccelum,"  and  consequently  cannot  speak  personally  of  its  worth.  The  oth- 
ers, however,  we  know  to  be  books  which  the  times  demand.  Could  not 
cheap  editions  be  issued  —  so  cheap  indeed,  that  the  very  widest  circulation 
could  be  attained  ?  With  these  in  the  hands  of  the  class  that  make  up  the 
bone  and  sinew  of  the  country,  a  strong  bulwark  would  be  erected  against 
the  rationalism  of  our  German  fellow-citizens,  the  papacy  of  our  Irish,  the 
infidelity  of  what  few  French  we  have,  and  the  dizzy-headed  nonsense  of 
the  few  native-born  Americans,  who,  to  get  notoriety,  are  willing  to  play 
the  fool,  in  regard  to  the  most  vital  of  all  subjects,  religion. 


8 

From  ike  Philadelphia  Enquirer. 

This  volume  consists  of  a  series  of  lectures  on  the  Evidences  of  the  Bibli- 
cal religion,  delivered  by  Dr.  Burr,  the  author  of  "  Ecce  Ccehun,"  a  book 
which  has  gained  a  wide  celebrity,  in  his  parish  in  Connecticut.  They 
were  not  originally  intended  for  publication,  but  the  author  says  that  even 
if  they  had  been  they  would  hardly  have  been  more  careful  in  their  state- 
ment of  main'  facts  and  arguments.  We  do  not  think  they  would  or  in- 
deed that  they  could  have  been  much  more  exact  or  telling  than  they  are. 
Dr.  Burr  is  an  advanced  thinker,  and  a  man  of  great  liberality,  so  far  as 
his  books  photograph  him.  His  arguments  are  both  cogent  and  persuasive. 
while  through  them  breathes  the  all-powerful  spirit  of  earnest  conviction. 

From  the  Conyregationalist. 
Some  books  are  like  a  leaden  rifle-ball ;  others  like  a  cartridge,  containing 
not  only  the  ball  but  abundant  means  for  propelling  it.  Dr.  Burr's  books 
are  of  the  latter  kind.  This,  his  last,  is  not  only  a  sound  and  good  work, 
but  it  is  active  and  stimulating.  .  .  .  We  have  a  very  able  opening 
chapter  entitled  "  Presumptions,"  which  is  worthy  of  being  a  book  by  itself 

so  forcibly  does  it  outline  the  grand  general  features  of  Christianity 

Those  who  have  read  "Ecce  Ccelum  "  and  "Pater  Mundi,"  will  know  what 

style  to  expect  in  the  present  volume We  accept  this  book  as 

one  of  real  power. 

From  the  L?ttheran  Observer. 

The  readers  of  "  Ecce  Ccelum  "  and  "  Pater  Mundi  "  — and  their  name 
is  legion  —  will  hail  with  delight  this  new  work  by  the  same  "  Connecticut 
pastor,1'  who  has  so  strikingly  made  the  heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God, 
and  made  the  wondrous  achievements  of  science  testify  to  his  wisdom,  his 
greatness,  his  divinity  and  eternal  power.  It  addresses  itself  to  doubters 
and  unbelievei's  with  such  an  array  of  facts,  and  with  such  direct  force  of 
logic  and  argument,  that  it  seems  impossible  for  a  rational  soul  to  resist  its 
conclusions.  The  book  might  appropriately  be  called  rational  and  moral 
geometry,  for  its  conclusions  are  the  result  of  demonstrations  as  clear  as  any 
in  Euclid. 

The  entire  work  characterized  by  great  clearness  and  accuracy  of  style 
and  statement,  and  it  meets  the  objections  and  cavils  of  cultivated  modem 
skepticism  —  the  vague  insinuations  and  sneers  which  float  like  froth  upon 
the  current  of  modern  literature  —  better  than  other  work  that  has  yet  ap- 
peared. 

From  (he    Christian  Weekly. 

"  Ad  Fidem  "  is  a  series  of  pastoral  lectures  to  which  the  pastor  has  invited 
the  reading  public.  And  the  reading  public  will  be  very  apt  to  come  when 
they  learn  that  the  lecturer  is  that  same  "  Connecticut  pastor  "  who  fascina- 
ted them  with  the  contagious  imagination  of  "  Ecce  Ccelum  "  and  "  Pater 
Mundi."  The  same  clear  and  cogent  logic  that  in  the  former  led  us  upon 
stepping-stones  of  stars  to  God  as  the  father  of  the  universe,  the  same  flit- 
tering and  brilliant  style  that  in  the  latter  led  us  through  the  phenomena 
of  nature  to  God  as  the  "  Father  of  the  World,"  is  offered  in  '•  Ad  Fidem  " 
to  lead  us  to  God  as  our  Saviour.  With  an  air  of  confidence  which  be- 
tokens deep  conviction;  with  an  enthusiasm  that  is  itself  an  evidence  of 
Christianity,  he   insists   upon    the    honest  application    to   the  Evidences  of 


those  tests  which  are  prescribed  by  Christianity  itself.  And  this  is  done  with 
no  juiceless  language,  but  in  a  decidedly  oratorical  style,  that  will  make  the 
book  very  widely  popular  and  useful.  Its  very  fault —  excess  of  ornamenta- 
tion and  gorgeousness  of  rhetoric  —  will  secure  a  hearing  for  the  truth  by 
persons  who  might  not  be  attracted  by  an  ordinary  book. 

From  the  Evening  Post. 
We  cordially  thank  the  publishers  for  sending  us  this  noble  volume.  It  is 
most  fittingly  dedicated  "  To  Christ  and  His  Church."  The  work  is  full  of 
irrefutable  evidences  of  the  Bible.  In  his  delightful  preface  the  learned  and 
gifted  author  says,  "  Not  only  was  Diderot,"  etc.  The  Typographical  exe- 
cution of  the  book  is  faultless. 

From  the  New  Eng  lander. 
Ita  merits  are  similar  to  those  of  his  previous  well  known  and  popular 
volumes.  The  author  has  the  gift  of  bold  and  impressive  statement,  .... 
a  vivid  and  telling  way  of  presentation,  ....  the  glow  and  power  of 
positive  eloquence.  The  book  will  receive,  as  it  deserves,  extensive  circula- 
tion, and,  as  we  doubt  not,  will  achieve  great  usefulness.  We  congratulate 
the  modest  and  patient  author  upon  the  success  which  he  has  attained,  and 
at  which,  perhaps,  he  himself  is  the  most  surprised. 

From  the  Express. 
The  argumeut  is  strong  and  the  style  in  which  it  is  stated  clear  and  im- 
pressive.     The  author  is  well  known  as  one  of  the  ablest  and  most  interest- 
ing of  the  religious  writers  of  the  day. 

From  Harper's  Monthly. 
It  is  refreshing  to  come  across  a  book  written  in  a  tone  at  once  so  candid 
and  so  cheeringly  confident  as  "  Ad  Fidem."  We  find  throughout  the 
book,  as  Dr.  Burr  in  his  preface  advises  us  we  shall,  "  an  air  of  great  confi- 
dence." At  the  same  time  the  author  rarely  substitutes  mere  assertion  for 
argument,  and  never  denounces  as  criminal  the  reader  who  fails  to  appre- 
ciate the  force  of  his  statements,  and  to  accept  the  opinions  to  which  they 
lead. 

From  the  Princeton  Review. 

In  this  beautiful  volume  Dr.  Burr  expatiates  in  his  favorite  field  of  Apolo- 
getics with  vigor,  tact,  and  eloquence.  He  rightly  traces  the  fortress  of 
unbelief  in  the  intellect  to  perverseness  in  the  will  and  heart ;  shows  that 
the  difficulties  in  the  way  of  religious  belief  are  no  more  formidable  than 
men  encounter  in  every  sphere  of  life  without  being  stumbled  by  them ; 
that  with  like  candor  applied  to  Christian  truth  all  their  embarrassments 
will  vanish,  etc. 

From  the  Christian  Quarterly. 
These  lectures  discuss  some  of  the  living  questions  of  the  age  in  a  man- 
ner at  once  able,  pleasing,  and  practical.  But  we  need  not  say  this  to  those 
who  have  read  Ecce  Caelum  and  Pater  Mundi.  These  will  know  that  it 
is  almost  impossible  for  Dr.  Burr  to  write  a  dull  book.  Ad  Fidem  will  add 
to  the  author's  reputation.  It  is  emphatically  a  book  for  the  times;  and  is 
one  of  the  finest  defenses  of  the  Christian  religion  that  has  been  made  in 
this  country.  It  does  for  the  Evidences  of  Christianity  what  Ecce  C&Ium 
does  for  astronomy. 


10 

From  the  Baptist  Quarterly. 
This  is  a  new  work  by  an  author  who  has  achieved  a  popularity  as  wide- 
spread as  it  is  merited.     Dr.  Burr  writes  in  a  style  of  singular  freshness 
and  vigor,  groups  his  truths  with  great  power,  and  communicates  his  en- 
thusiastic earnestness  to  his  reader. 

From  Scribner''s  Monthly. 
The  Rev.  Dr.  Burr,  of  Lyme,  Conn.,  has  made  a  sudden  reputation  of 
late  by  two  attractive  —  perhaps  we  might  even  say  brilliant  —  books  on  the 
Evidences  of  Christianity.  He  has  just  published  a  third.  Ad  Fidem  is  a 
rapid,  popular,  and  eloquent  summary  of  the  arguments  for  the  Bible.  It 
is  founded  on  careful  research,  and  is  believed  to  represent  the  latest  de- 
velopments of  Biblical  scholarship.  There  is  no  pretense  of  originality  or 
appearance  of  scholastic  learning ;  but  the  author  has  what  is  much  better 
for  his  purpose,  a  forcible  style,  a  dexterity  in  the  use  of  striking  figures 
and  examples,  and  a  remarkable  gift  of  seizing  and  retaining  the  interest  of 
his  readers.  He  is  clear,  earnest,  rapid,  vigorous,  and,  above  all,  enter- 
taining. 


NOYES,  HOLMES,  &  CO., 

BOSTOIT, 

HAVE  JUST   PUBLISHED 

THE  FOURTH  GOSPEL  THE  HEART  OF  CHRIST. 

BY   EDMUND    H.   SEARS,  D.  D., 

AUTHOR   OF    "ATHANASIA"    AND   "REGENERATION." 

Price,  $2.50. 


From  the  Boston  Journal. 
"  It  is  long  since  there  has  appeared  in  theological  literature  a  work 
of  such  power  and  significance  as  the  present.  Deeply  reverent  and 
tender,  imbued  with  a  thorough  sympathy  with  its  subject,  it  sketches 
the  life  of  the  God-man  with  a  degree  of  grace  and  beauty  rarely  at- 
tained in  books  of  its  class." 

From  the  Boston  Globe. 
"  One  welcomes  such  a  volume  as  this  with  peculiar  pleasure,  be- 
cause it  comes  from  the  mind,  heart,  and  soul  of  a  thoughtful,  studi- 
ous, and  religious  country  clergyman,  who  is  too  much  absorbed  in 
his  work  to  care  for  prominence  in  the  public  eye.  Mr.  Sears,  though 
a  country  clergyman,  cannot  be  said  to  dwell  in  the  noble  obscurity 
of  his  class.  His  Christmas  hymn  is  as  well  known  as  any  poem  in 
American  literature,  and  is  read  and  sung  by  hundreds  of  thousands 
who  have  but  a  faint  appreciation  of  his  worth  as  a  religious  thinker 
and  scholar.  If  these  persons  could  only  know  that  the  same  tender- 
ness and  beauty  which  find  expression  in  that  immortal  hymn  breathe 
through  this  labored  work  on  '  the  beloved  disciple,'  they  would  rush 
to  it  like  '  a  famished  host  on  miraculous  bread.'  " 

From  the  Boston  Transcript. 
"  The  name  of  the  author  of  this  book  justifies  us  in  expecting  a 
scholarly  and  appreciative  analysis  of  the  gospel  which  is  its  title.  To 
fitly  interpret  the  Fourth  Gospel,  a  man  must  be  no  formal  literalist, 
but  must  possess  a  keen  sense  of  spiritual  realities,  and  a  fullness  of 
spiritual  perception  —  qualities  which  are  united  in  him  to  a  rare  de- 
gree.    In  this  book,  the  product  of  long  and  careful  study,  his  pur- 


pose  has  been,  not  '  to  write  a  book  of  Christian  evidences  merely, 
but  to  evolve  the  contents  of  the  Johannean  writings,  which,  clearly 
apprehended,  are  their  own  evidence,  and  prove  Christianity  itself  a 
gift  from  above,  and  not  a  human  discovery.'  " 

From  the  Watchman  and  Reflector. 
"  It  has  been  known  for  some  time  to  not  a  small  circle  of  religious 
scholars  that  Dr.  Edmund  H.  Sears  was  busy  in  preparing  a  volume 
on  the  fourth  Gospel.  The  appearance  of  the  book  has  been  looked 
forward  to  with  largest  interest.  Dr.  Sears  is  a  prominent  clergyman 
in  the  Unitarian  denomination.  He  has  won  a  distinguished  name 
among  men  of  every  religious  faith  as  a  profound  and  reverent  stu- 
dent and  a  forceful,  eloquent  writer.  The  subject  before  him  is  one 
which  has  challenged  the  best  scholarship  and  the  sharpest  criticism 
of  the  last  half-century.  It  is  a  subject,  too,  which,  like  the  Lydian 
stone,  tests  the  quality  of  whatever  comes  in  contact  with  it.  It  would 
not  be  possible  for  Dr.  Sears,  or  any  other  thoughtful  man,  to  discuss 
the  Johannean  writings  without  disclosing  to  his  readers  every  shadow 
and  shade  of  his  theological  creed,  as  respects  all  those  facts  and  doc- 
trines which  the  Church  still  regards  as  fundamental.  These  we  give 
as  some  of  the  reasons  which  account  for  the  wide-spread  interest 
which  has  gone  before  the  publication  of  this  volume.  And  now  that 
the  book  has  appeared,  and  is  being  largely  read,  this  feeling  of  curi- 
osity deepens  into  one  of  great  surprise.  Prepared  as  many  readers 
may  have  been  for  an  exhibition  of  a  most  reverential  spirit  in  Dr. 
Sears'  studies  of  this  Gospel,  and  a  statement  of  theological  views  in 
entire  opposition  to  the  humanitarian  or  pantheistic  theories  of  very 
many  in  his  denomination,  they  were  not  prepared  for  such  interpreta- 
tions of  Scripture,  and  such  methods  of  reasoning,  and  such  positive 
conclusions  as  fairly  place  Dr.  Sears  in  the  rank  of  orthodox  thinkers 
and  believers." 

From  the  Cincinnati  Times  and  Chronicle. 
"  Noyes,  Holmes,  &  Co.  publish  a  religious  work  by  Rev.  E.  H. 
Sears  that  ought  to  enlist  the  attention  of  a  very  large  circle  of 
thoughtful  readers.  It  is  entitled,  "The  Fourth  Gospel  the  Heart 
of  Christ,"  and  is  devoted  to  elucidating  the  proofs  of  the  genuine- 
ness of  John's  Gospel,  its  harmony  with  the  other  gospels,  its  theol- 
ogy, and  the  special  light  it  throws  on  the  nature,  character,  teachings, 
and  works  of  Christ.  Mr.  Sears  is  one  of  the  most  vigorous  and  acute 
thinkers  and  dialecticians  in  America,  and  this  stout  book  of  550 
pages  is  one  of  the  most  important  volumes  yet  contributed  to  theo- 
logical literature  in  this  country.  It  is  written  from  a  clear  head  and 
full  heart ;  it  is  not  dry  argument  or  skeleton  theology,  but  the  thought 
glows  with  life,  and  the  rhetoric  is  as  grand  and  beautiful  as  the  logic 


is  strong.  It  would  be  folly  to  assume  that  the  book  has  no  vulner- 
able points  which  theological  criticism  can  find  ;  but  it  is  a  very  vital 
book,  and  merits  the  careful  study  of  all  religious  readers." 

Frojn  the  New  York  Bulletin. 
"Two  religious  or  semi-theological  books  have  just  been  published, 
which  are  much  above  the  average  class  of  literature,  namely,  one  is, 
1  The  Fourth  Gospel  the  Heart  of  Christ?  by  Rev.  Edmund  H.  Sears, 
a  book  of  real  ability,  admirable  spirit,  and  conclusive  argument  ;  the 
author  evolves  the  contents  of  the  Johannean  writings,  which,  he 
claims,  clearly  apprehended,  are  their  own  evidence,  and  prove  Chris- 
tianity itself  a  gift  direct  from  above,  and  not  a  human  discovery. 
Mr.  Sears  is  on  the  extreme  evangelical  wing  of  Unitarianism,  and 
his  book  must  make  a  sensible  impression  upon  thinking  minds, 
whether  they  are  merely  intellectual,  or  intellectual  and  religious  ; 
the  two  qualities  are  not  always  found  in  company  !  " 

From  the  New  York  Tribune. 

"  His  volume  will  take  a  high  rank  among  the  biographies  of  Jesus 
which  within  a  few  years  past  have  so  greatly  enriched  the  religious 
literature  of  the  country." 

From  the  Congregationalism 

"  The  Fourth  Gospel  the  Heart  of  Christ  is  a  book  of  extraordinary 
interest  for  its  own  sake,  and  still  more  from  the  position  of  the  author, 
the  Rev.  Dr.  Edmund  H.  Sears,  as  a  representative  of  what  is  called 
Evangelical  Unitarianism.  Judged  as  a  volume  on  its  own  merits,  it 
is  a  rich  and  fresh  contribution  to  the  literature  of  the  ages  touching 
the  life  of  our  Lord.  It  is  instructive  and  suggestive  in  the  highest 
ranges  of  Christian  thought  and  feeling.  The  title  is  less  compre- 
hensive than  the  contents  of  the  treatise.  This  is  not  limited  to  the 
Gospel  of  St.  John,  but  covers  nearly  all  the  New  Testament  writ- 
ings, so  far  as  they  throw  light  on  the  central  and  controlling  truth 
of  the  Supreme  Deity  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  While  establishing 
the  genuineness  and  authenticity  of  St.  John's  Gospel,  as  tributary  to 
the  argument,  the  authorship  of  the  other  three  gospels  is  established, 
the  scope,  purpose,  and  spirit  of  the  book  of  Revelation  illustrated, 
and  the  character  of  the  Epistles  of  Paul  largely  discussed.  The 
scholarship  seems  to  us  as  accurate  as  it  is  ample.  The  results  of 
wide  research  and  critical  investigation  are  condensed  into  a  few  pages 
with  a  clearness  of  statement  not  often  equaled.  The  brief  chapter 
on  Gnosticism,  for  instance,  gives  a  better  notion  of  that  confused  and 
confusing  mysticism  than  can  be  gathered  from  many  columns." 


From  the  Light  of  Home. 
"  It  would  be  a  pity  that  the  mass  of  readers  should  be  repelled 
from  this  remarkable  book  by  its  title,  which  suggests  dogmatic  con- 
troversy or  textual  exposition  ;  for  it  is  one  of  the  most  deeply  inter- 
esting volumes  of  this  generation.  It  is  as  much  superior  to  "  Ecce 
Homo  "  in  power  of  statement,  grasp  of  thought,  and  freshness  of 
conception  as  that  was  to  the  Christologies  of  average  writers.  Here 
are  the  results  of  twenty  years'  faithful  research  and  ripening  scholar- 
ship. Probably  it  is  the  last,  as  it  certainly  is  the  best,  book  from  the 
mind  and  heart  that  gave  us  '  Athanasia  '  and  '  Regeneration.'  With 
no  decrease  of  the  vigor  apparent  in  those  earlier  works,  there  is  in 
this  the  same  affluence  of  style,  and  a  more  comprehensive  reach  of 
thought.     We  earnestly  commend  it  to  our  readers." 

From  the  Church  and  Stale. 

"  No  book  of  recent  American  theology  is  likely  to  win  more  notice 
from  thoughtful  readers  than  this  handsome  volume  by  Edmund  H. 
Sears,  of  551  pages.  As  a  work  of  literary  art,  it  has  great  merit, 
and  its  clear,  rich,  and  vivid  style  carries  in  its  flow  great  wealth  of 
thought  and  learning  with  cumulative  power  to  the  end. 

"  Many  things  may  and  will  be  said  of  this  noble  piece  of  thought 
and  expression,  but  we  choose  to  treat  it  now  in  its  most  obvious  re- 
lation to  our  time,  as  a  book  for  our  age  and  country,  and  perhaps  as 
preeminently  indicating  the  mind  of  thoughtful  and  devout  scholars 
of  the  Cambridge  School.  The  writer  reminds  us  often  of  Dr.  Bush- 
nell,  and,  like  him,  is  eager  to  mediate  between  the  new  rationalism 
and  the  Old  Gospel,  yet  has  more  substance  in  his  thought  than  the 
eloquent  Hartford  divine,  and  is  less  in  danger  of  allowing  the  objec- 
tive reality  of  the  Christian  religion  to  evaporate  into  the  volatile 
ether  of  his  idealism.  Mr.  Sears,  too,  although  he  does  not  recognize 
duly  the  nature  and  power  of  the  historical  church,  seems  to  come 
nearer  to  it  than  Dr.  Bushnell,  and  he  regards  the  being  and  mission, 
the  death  and  resurrection  of  our  Lord,  more  as  central  facts  and 
powers  of  the  kingdom  of  God  with  men,  and  less  as  having  merely 
a  subjective  significance  which  is  to  be  interpreted  and  applied  by 
each  individual.  Both  of  them  fall  short  of  true  catholicity  in  the 
estimate  of  church  institutions,  but  Mr.  Sears  comes  nearer  the  true 
catholic  idea,  and  he  has  only  to  cany  out  what  he  says  of  the  Incar- 
nation and  Atonement  and  the  Holy  Spirit,  to  be  a  good  Catholic 
Churchman  of  the  liberal  school." 

From  the  Literary  World. 

"  This  is  a  very  strong  book  —  the  work  of  a  powerful  and  inde- 
pendent thinker  ;  and  as  an  exposition  of  the  Johannean  theology,  it 
has  probably  never  been  surpassed  in  acumen  and  thoroughness  " 


"  Not  less    fascinating   than    the    '  Schonberg   Cotta-Family.'  "  — 
Lawrence  American. 


GUTENBERG, 

AND 

THE   ART    OF    PRINTING. 
By   EMILY   C.    PEARSON. 

A    POPULAR  HISTORY  OF   THE  ART  OF  PRINTING  FROM 
THE   EARLIEST   TIMES    TO    THE   PRESENT  DAY. 

Embellished  with  numerous  interesting  Plates,  illustrating  the 
progress  of  the  art,  and  showing  the  steps  of  its  advancement 
and  improvement. 

The  work  gives  authentic  accounts  of  Ancient  Books  and 
their  Materials — The  First  Press  —  Discovery  of  Cast 
Metal  Type  —  The  First  Printed  Page  of  the  Bible  — 
Modern  Printing  —  Modes  of  Making  Type  —  Type-set 
ting  by  Machinery  —  Stereotyping — Electrotyping  — 
The  Modern  Press  —  Printing  for  the  Blind,  and  the 
various  discoveries  and  inventions,  ancient  and  modern,  by  which 
the  art  has  been  brought  to  its  present  perfection. 

One  very  handsome  volume,  with  elegant  illuminated  title,  300 
pp.     Price,  $2.00. 

Sent  post-paid  to  any  address,  on  receipt  of  price,  by 

NO  YES,  HOLMES,  AND   COMPANY, 
Publishers, 

117  WASHINGTON  STREET, 
BOSTON,  MASS. 

D^*  For  full  Contents,  etc.,  see  inside. 


NOTICES. 


From  the  Literary  World. 

" '  The  Art  of  Printing.'  —  It  is  not  a  little  remarkable  that 
the  popular  knowledge  touching  an  event  of  such  transeendant 
importance  as  the  invention  of  printing  should  be  so  vague  and 
unsatisfactory.  The  general  notion  obtains  that  one  Gutenberg,  a 
German,  about  1450,  discovered  a  means  of  taking  impressions 
from  movable  type  ;  but  the  particulars  of  the  discovery  are 
known  to  but  few,  and  in  the  minds  of  many  there  is  a  doubt 
whether  the  honor  of  the  invention  belongs  to  Gutenberg,  to  Faust, 
or  to  Schoeffer.  This  book  undertakes  to  settle  this  question,  and 
to  furnish  all  attainable  information  pertaining  thereto.  The 
author  has  wisely  chosen  to  give  her  work  the  shape  of  an  autobi- 
ography, for  '  The  Life  of  Gutenberg  '  would  attract  many  read- 
ers who  would  recoil  from  the  prosy  intimations  of  a  '  History 
of  Printing.'  This  autobiography  is  very  pleasant  reading ;  the 
little  love-romance  which  it  embodies,  agreeably  relieves  the 
somewhat  sombre  story  of  the  inventor's  trials  and  misfortunes. 
In  the  preparation  of  her  work,  the  author  has  consulted  the  most 
trustworthy  authorities,  and  has  in  no  instance,  we  believe,  sacri- 
ficed the  truth  of  history  in  behalf  of  effect. 

"  The  progress  in  the  art  of  printing,  so  far  as  Gutenberg  was 
concerned  with  it ;  what  his  partners  and  successors  achieved,  and 
the  earliest  history  of  printing  in  other  lands,  may  be  learned 
from  the  book  under  notice.  The  closing  pages  of  this  volume 
are  occupied  by  a   minute,  accurate,  and  exceedingly   interesting 


3 

account  of  printing  as  it  is  done  to-day,  when  a  press  can  throw 
off  20,000  to  30,000  impressions  per  hour.  We  confidently  com- 
mend this  account,  as  clear  and  comprehensive,  to  all  who  are 
curious  as  to  the  mechanical  process  of  book  and  newspaper- 
making.  The  contrast  between  the  old  and  the  new,  the  begin- 
ning and  —  shall  we  say?  the  perfection  of  the  art  of  printing,  is 
very  strikingly  presented.  The  author  has  done  her  work  well ; 
and  hereafter  there  will  be  no  excuse  for  the  prevailing  ignorance 
as  to  this  interesting  subject.  Although  her  history  is  not  ex- 
haustive, it  informs  us  upon  all  essential  points,  and  in  the  pa- 
thetic story  of  Gutenberg's  life,  reveals  the  birth  and  growth  of  the 
'  art  preservative  of  arts,'  in  an  impressive  and  agreeable  man- 
ner. The  volume  is  a  beautiful  specimen  of  book-making,  printed 
on  tinted  paper,  with  an  illuminated  title-page,  and  profusely 
illustrated  with  cuts  of  old  and  new  printing  implements  and 
machinery.  Altogether,  in  contents  and  externals,  it  is  very 
creditable  to  its  publishers." 

From  Samuel  Burnham,  Editor  of  the  Congregational  Quarterly, 
"  In  brief,  the  work  is  interesting,  emphatically  instructive, 
well-written,  and  on  a  fresh  and  important  theme.  The  writer 
could  scarcely  have  hit  upon  a  topic  more  attractive.  A  popular 
work,  embodying  the  main  facts  of  the  history  of  printing,  has 
been  greatly  desired  ;  and  in  our  opinion,  this  book  meets  that 
want.  It  has  the  rare  merit  of  being  entertaining  as  a  story, 
while  adhering  closely  to  fact.  It  is  greatly  in  its  favor,  that  it 
has  no  rival  in  its  subject." 

From  Rev.  H.  M.  Dexter,  D.  D.,  Editor  of  the  Congregation- 
alist. 
"I  have  been  greatly  interested  in  the  sheets  of  the  volume, 
and  wonder  that  no  book  of  the  sort  has  ever  before  been  written. 
Surely  it  cannot  fail  to  find  a  multitude  of  interested  and 
instructed  readers,  who  will  rejoice  with  me  that  it  has  been  put 
into  a  shape  of  beauty  so  fitting  to  such  a  subject." 


From  C.  Henry  St.  John,  Assistant  Editor  ofZion's  Herald. 

"  '  Gutenburg,  and  the  Art  of  Printing'  is  certainly  a  great  sue- 
cess,  and  must  prove  as  interesting,  instructing,  and  attractive  to 
the  general  reader  as  to  the  more  scientific,  or  those  in  pursuit  of 
curious  information.  While  the  printing  and  illustrating  will 
meet  with  due  appreciation,  the  labor  bestowed  on  it  never  can. 
It  is  the  handsomest  book  we  have  received  for  many  a  day,  and 
worthy  the  fame  of  Riverside." 

From  the  Boston  Evening  Transcript. 
" « Gutenberg,  and  the  Art  of  Printing/  is  the  title  of  a  dainty 
and  elegant  i2mo,  by  Emily  C.  Pearson,  to  be  published  in  a  few 
days  by  Noyes,  Holmes  &  Co.  The  beautiful  title-page  and  the 
historical  and  other  illustrations  add  to  the  attractions  of  the 
carefully  prepared  narrative  of  the  chevalier  and  artisan  who 
brought  to  light  the  '  art  of  arts.'  Its  descriptions  of  the  past  are 
not,  however,  the  only  valuable  portions  of  the  book.  Added  to 
and  connected  with  the  biography  is  a  large  amount  of  useful 
information  for  those  not  familiar  with  the  working  of  the  mate- 
rial instrumentalities  which  belong  to  the  measureless  influence 
of  the  press." 

From  the  Lawrence  American. 
"  We  cordially  welcome  this  entertaining  and  valuable  work, 
which    is     not    less    fascinating    than    the    '  Schonberg-Cotta 
Family.'    A  higher  than  romantic  interest  invests  the  story." 


"  The  whole  story  is  admirably  told One  of  the 

most  charming  books  we  have  read  for  a  long  time."  —  Cleveland 
Leader. 

"  Gutenberg  was  a  hero,  in  his  way,  and  his  romantic  story  is 
admirably  told."—  The  Pacific. 

"  Clear,  vivid,  and  accurate,  greatly  aided  by  the  excellent  illus- 
trations which  form  a  marked  attraction  of  the  book."  —  Detroit 
Tribune. 

"  What  might  be  dull  history  is  made  to  partake  of  the  inter- 
esting nature  of  a  novel."  —  N.  H.  Palladium. 

"  Original  and  very  attractive."  —  Plaindealer. 

"  It  is  a  wonderful  tale,  with  the  advantage  of  all  being  true. 
The  whole  work  is  interesting."  —  A".  Y.  Journal  of  Commerce. 

"  The  only  book  of  the  kind,  and  very  attractive."  —  Rutland 
Independent. 

"  An  exquisite  volume ;  perfect  in  every  appointment."  — 
Northern  Christian  Advocate. 

"  A  clear  account  of  the  wonderful  art,  and  very  interesting."  — 
Book  Worm. 

"  Reads  like  a  graceful  romance.  A  thoroughly  attractive 
book."  —  Rural  Nerv  Yorker. 

"A  very  interesting  volume."  —  Philadelphia  Ledger. 

"  The  story  of  one  of  the  world's  great  inventors,  marked  by 
striking  excellencies."  —  Free  Press. 

"  Graceful,  sprightly,  effective.  The  whole  book  is  exceedingly 
interesting,  and  will  find  a  wide  circle  of  readers."  —  Interior, 
Chicago. 

"  A  beautifully  printed  and  illustrated  history  of  '  the  art  pre- 
servative,' with  much  useful  and  attractively-presented  informa- 
tion." —  Alta  Californian. 


6 

"  A  book  of  great  interest."  —Norwich  Bulletin. 
"  Cannot  fail  to  please  and  instruct.     In  its  subject  it  stands 
without  a  rival."  —  Orient. 

"  Of  wonderful  interest.  A  desirable  acquisition  to  any  library." 
—  City  Item,  Philadelphia. 

"  Sounds  like  veritable  romance,  but  has  in  it  marvelous  truth. 
It  is  worth  one's  while  to  read  it."  — Amer.  Rural  Home. 

"  Many  curious  facts  related  in  an  agreeable  manner."  —  North 
American,  Philadelphia. 

"  A  most  valuable  book A  history  of  a  most  won- 
derful man."  —  Nat.  Te?np.  Advocate. 

"  Very  instructive  and  entertaining."  —  M.  Press,  Albany. 

"  It  reads  almost  like  a  romance  while  it  keeps  closely  to  his- 
torical facts."  —  Journal  of  Chemistry. 

"  The  facts,  as  gracefully  grouped  in  this  volume,  form  a  most 
pleasing  story."  —  Amer.  Churchman. 

"  The  best  presentation  that  has  yet  been  made  of  Gutenberg's 
work  as  an  inventor,  for  popular  reading."  —  Lib.  Christian. 

"Full  of  romantic  interest."  —  Albany  Argus. 

"  A  valuable  book,  very  readable,  and  will  interest  all  classes." — 
Hartford  Courant. 

"  A  very  attractive  volume."  —  San  Francisco  Bulletin. 

"  It  is  curious  that  no  such  book  as  this  has  appeared  in  our 
language  before.  The  author  has  told  the  romantic  strange  story 
in  a  very  interesting  way."  —  Windham  Co.  Transcript. 

"  An  elegant  sample  of  the  art  it  treats  of.  It  is  the  only  book 
of  the  kind,  affording  information  interesting  to  every  one."  — 
Christian  World. 


|                   DATE  DUE 

jF£8  0 ' 

•   • 

Demco,  Inc.  38-293 

1    1012  01006  9609 


,:m. 


ill 


